Could this be Christmas?

Everyone has been talking all season long about how it just didn't feel like Christmas. "I just can't get into the spirit!" some said. Others said they just weren't in the mood. Still others felt like there was too much grief and sadness to be joyful this year. Everyone I spoke with seemed to be having a more difficult time this year. Not necessarily money, either, it was more persisitently the "spirit" of things.

Well, I have to admit, I wasn't any different. I was ready to call the whole thing off. Heck, I wasn't alone, even my own mother was ready to call it quits. Like "The Year Without A Santa Claus" we were just gonna stay in bed and ignore the season. But alas, we have many kids in our families and as much as we just didn't feel like doing it, we couldn't let our babies down.

So, here in our neck of the woods we planned the Salmon family Christmas gathering. We did things differently this year. We drew names so that if you wanted a gift you had to give a gift. That went pretty well, but coming to the decision wasn't easy. Lots of arguing and tears which I had not seen much of in years, and well, I guess I'm just not cut out for that anymore. But like I said, we got through that part at Thanksgiving, and the Christmas party time was drawing near. I bought our tree finally on Thursday and Mom helped me get it in the stand and set up before Erik came home. Decorations would have to wait. I came down with a nasty cough on Thursday night, and was feeling pretty out of it on Friday. Then Saturday morning came and I was too sick to take Aleah to gymnastics. So I stayed home and rested and then my Mom and the kids and I decorated the tree. We also tried very unsuccessfully to decorate the gingerbread house that my dad had bought for the kids. Then she and I went shopping for the party that evening. We went ahead and got a few little stocking stuffers and what we needed for Christmas Day dinner as well as New year's dinner.

Sunday I awoke with what I can only call a sinus migraine. I felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to the side of my head and jaw. I took about a 30 minute much hotter than normally tolerable shower and lots of ibuprophen and sudaphed. Finally it subsided a bit, which was good because guests were to arrive by noon, and I had not even cleaned house yet! (although, I must admit, Erik has been wonderful helping out with keeping things tidy) I didn't get to make the cookies for the decorating station or anything! Oh well, Jenny offered to bring a tray of cookies from Sam's and that will just have to do.

The party went off without much of a hitch. There was plenty of food for everyone and all seemed to have a good time. My nephew had an upset stomach, and of course the fates decided it was time to create chaos right in the middle of the opening of the gifts. Well, we got that cleaned up and everything else went well. Then just a while before everyone was due to leave, he got ill again, and Lori (his mom, 4 or 5 mos pregnant) is trying to clean him up and had an anxiety attack. So that was pretty crazy! But overall, everyone was happy. No one complained "he got more than me!" or hey, I wanted one of those!" Everyone was content with what they received and I was quite glad. Needless to say by the time everyone left I was wiped out, but hope was relatively restored that Christmas could be not only conquered but perhaps even enjoyed!

Monday came, and I was feeling lousy. Just couldnt shake this cough. Tuesday came and not much change. I could get a hold of it for about 2-3 hours out of the day with a certain combination of medicines, but the same combo didnt work every time. Well, Wednesday came and trashed me out again, as the song goes, but this time I couldnt beat it. I literally thought I would die! This was it, I was not gonna get better. Well, Erik came home and took me to the ER (cuz the only walk-in clinic in town was "closed unti further notice" hmmm.. can we say SCANDAL?) Well, after 6and a half hours we finally had a diagnosis. Pneumonia. Yep. Sure was. I couldnt believe it! And the doctor's prognosis for the next few days was not good. Stay in bed. You are not gonna feel up to doing more than opening a few presents and then going back to bed. I was devastated! I had family coming for Christmas dinner. I hadn't wrapped a single gift! I still had stocking stuffers to get! How was it all gonna get done??? I thought we were going to have to somehow trick the kids into thinking that Christmas wasn't until Saturday or something!

Well, lo and behold, after a really good dose of narcotic at the ER on Wednesday, and IV antibiotics, I was feeling MUCH better come Thursday. Erik refused to go to work because he didn't trust leaving me alone for that long. Which was probably good cuz I was only able to be upright for a little bit at a time. He took the kids Christmas shopping and while he was out it was all I could do to wrap their presents. I felt really bad when I realized they each had only 4 presents each, plus 1 from Santa. Now, granted, these were mostly gifts that they had asked for specifically, but usually I overdo it tremendously. But this year I only used my babysitting money for Christmas presents, determined not to overspend and not have money for bills and such. Then I felt much worse when I was filling the kids' stockings and they were so light they could still hang on the stocking hooks. But what could I do? It was Christmas eve and all our extra money had gone to my medicine ($140 worth) and I was certainly in no condition to try to go out to the store anyway. So I decided it would just have to do. We would make the most of it, one way or another. I was grateful that I was at least able to wrap all the gifts and I didn't have to leave that to Erik.

Christmas morning came and after very little sleep Erik and I were quite grouchy. He greeted me with "not merry Christmas" and I said, no, Merry Christmas, we have to do the best we can for the kids. And so we did. The kids enjoyed their presents and had a grand time. No one seemed to notice how sparse the presents were, and were just as thrilled with the smaller gifts from us as they were with the BIG gifts from a very doting Aunt Chris up in Michigan (thanks Chris -the kids always LOVE what you get them) I had made the comment earlier that it is kind of a sad state of affairs when Santa is outdone by an aunt, but that was how it was this year, and I was actually quite grateful because Santa could not have fulfilled that wish all by his lonesome!

The next hurdle was Christmas dinner. We haven't had Christmas dinner here on Christmas day in years, and I was certainly NOT feeling as well as I was yesterday. Well, Mom and Dad came down and my dear sweet husband and the two of them got the turkey going and peeled potatoes and cleaned house all while I was napping on the couch! I was so touched by how much they accomplished in just under 2 hours. I felt much better after my nap and a shower and was able to finish up the Turkey, make the potatoes and finish getting everything else together by the time my Sister and her family arrived. Of course, by the time dinner was served, I was wiped and couldn't eat more than about 3 bites, but I was able to sit at the table and enjoy some good conversation and a relaxed time with my family.

After everyone had gone and around bedtime for the kids they were all sitting around the table having their bedtime snack (cereal, seems to be becoming a tradition with them) and they start up a conversation:

Aleah: "Wasn't this the best Christmas ever??"

Both boys agreed.

Garret: "Know what the best part was for me?"

Aleah responded but I don't know what she said.

Garret: "Opening the Rainbow in my room!" (this was his Santa present, Santa was very proud right about now :P)

Later Aleah made mention about their being LOTS OF THINGS in their stockings! Which I was just amazed at. My mother said it best. More isn't better. More is just More.

This has made me truly appreciate and marvel at how well kids can tolerate things that we think are just devastating. So what if it wasn't the "perfect" Christmas in my eyes. My children loved every minute of it and are tucked soundly in their nice warm beds as we speak, dreaming of all the fun they will have with their new toys tomorrow. It was one of the most meager Christmases I can remember, but I will never forget it. We did it all on our own, with help from Family of course, and it truly was a Christmas to remember.

Now I have a week of company to look forward to, and I've decided I am not going to stress! I have opened my home to these relatives because it is the best option, even if I am not Martha Stewart OR the Flylady, and they are simply happy to be visiting family!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone's holidays are as blessed as ours was!

Erik made this Rebus puzzle "Merry Christmas and a Happy 2010!

If we make it through December......

Ok, so, it's been absolutely nuts here lately. Family issues aside (who doesn't have those?), it seems everything is just falling apart here.

Our cars are both having multi-hundred dollar issues, and we are lucky to have a hundred after everything is paid for the month. Erik works an hour away which means that if I need a vehicle, I have to take him to work at way too early in the morning. This is not new to me. We went over a year without a second vehicle, so it's not that big of a deal. Just mainly another straw, if you know what I mean. LOL

I just made an appointment for a consultation with a surgeon to see if Nathaniel needs his tonsils taken out. Again, I know this isn't a HUGE deal; kids get their tonsils out all the time, right? it's just that it will be my first experience with something MAJOR with my kids. I'm not overly surprised by it, though. I mean, he's the one that has always had some sort of illnes, it seems. He's allergic to most everything (which reminds me I have to call the doc about the medicine they gave him last night), he has chronic bronchitis, we usually go through about 2 rounds of breathing treatments per winter, he's already had MONO, has very sensitive skin, and has had more bizarre rashes in his 8 years then i have had in my life LOL. So even though I kind of expected this at some point, I'm still not feeling very brave about my baby having surgery.

Aleah has to have speech therapy. Again, not really a big deal, but one more thing to throw the schedule off. And with not having a vehicle, it really stinks.

Garret starts his "play therapy" on Thursday. However, the first appointment, I have to be there by myself. Great. This means that Erik will have to take a half day off. which means he doesn't get paid for a half day.

I go to school online, and needless to say, I'm a bit behind. With everything that has gone on this last couple of weeks (not to mention Thanksgiving) I've just not had the time or attention span to truly devote to my studies. The kids and I are focusing on more "unit study" type schooling right now, simply because it is all I have time for. We read lots of books and do crafts and hands on things that we can do on the spur of the moment. They are learning plenty, but I can't say they are learning "traditionally". But I must say I am glad that we do homeschool, otherwise, these next couple of weeks/months would be REALLY bad. I don't have to worry about juggling the kids' appointments with their "school days" AND our transportation issues.

Well, I guess I just needed to vent a bit :) I really am glad that we are able to do all these things that need to be done and that it will not take away from our family time together. As long as we have each other, we will be just fine. Reminds me of an old song... If we make it through December..........

a great site for young children and children with special needs

A friend of mine and her husband developed this site for their son. Check it out.

What's for dinner?

Tater-Tot Casserole!

1lb ground beef (browned and crumbled, drained)
1 bag tater tots
1 can cheese soup
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
1 can evaporated milk
8 oz sour cream
Shredded cheese

Preheat to 375
Stir all ingredients in a big bowl and put in 9 x 13 pan. top with extra shredded cheese if desired. Bake until bubbly and crispy on top.

ENJOY :)

Growing Gummy Bears

So we did a science experiment last night/this morning. The kids really enjoyed it... here's the short version...
measure the gummy bear and make an outline of it on paper
put gummy bear in a cup and cover with water. What do you think it will do if left overnight?

measure it and make outline the next morning... what happened to it?

The explanation is OSMOSIS ... The gummy bear is relatively dry, so the water travels into the gummy to even out the water concentration.

If you google "grow a gummy bear" you come up with some interesting links about this, such as this one...
"Gummy Bears in Water"

My kids (age 4-8) really enjoyed this...

Happy Homeschooling!

LIfe

Well, we finished week 2. Everything went pretty well, with a few exceptions. Garret is still having some concentration issues. He struggled quite a bit with Math this week, and I think it is because he is bored. I'll have him look at a new type of book next week and see if maybe he does better with that curriculum. I pulled Aleah completely off of Math-U-See. I doubt she will use it at all, but for now she is just too young. I think this may be the biggest problem with Math-u-See. It's not set up for young kids that are smart enough to do the math but not mature enough to the "boring" work.... I think that's the biggest thing with Garret right now too. He's really smart enough to be flying through this part of the curriculum, but Math-u-see doesnt really allow for you to move that fast through it. Maybe I'm just doing it wrong, I dunno LOL But for now, I am going back to a "pre-school" math curriculum for the paper part of the work, (because it is what I have on hand) then working with her verbally on addition and subtraction.

Today is the Fairest of the Fair pageant at SE Tennessee Regional Fair in Athens, TN. I'm really hoping it doesn't rain. For now radar is clear, but forecast is 30% chance. We decided to go more casual this year for two reasons. One, Erik has to work. This saddens me, but I know it is a fact of life. Aleah seems to be taking it in stride though. However, I cannot handle everything. I cannot take care of all three kids and get Aleah all dolled up formally. So we are going with "Sunday Dress" for this one. We tried everything out yesterday and she really does look cute :) She will be wearing a pink flower sun-dress and have her hair in pig-tails and ribbons and wear some really cute sandals. This will be much easier on her and myself. Less stress means she will have more fun, which is what counts. My sister and her husband, Eric, will be coming. They have grand plans of a picnic with Arby's sandwiches (the ruffians favorite) and fruit and lemonade. I just hope the weather holds long enough. If not, I'm sure we will find something to do :) The kids love to spend time with Aunt Jenny. BTW. "The ruffians' is what my mother and everyone at her work calls my kids. Not sure why, it has just stuck.

Well, I'm off to get some breakfast and start my day. Hope everyone has a good one!

1 week down, many many more to go.

OK, so our first full week of homeschooling is OVER :) and I must say it went pretty well. We had a bit of tears from Garret, and only minimal whining from Nathaniel. I need to adjust our math curriculum though. The kids seem to be bored with Math-u-see. I am thinking of going with Singapore math, as it seems to be more varied. May still give it another week though. We've been doing math since early in the summer, so really it's not something new to them, but I want to make sure.

Everything else they seemed to enjoy, though I must admit, I'll be glad to be able to get some set curriculum. I'm not looking forward to searching down writing and reading assignments for Nathaniel for the upcoming week. For Garret and Aleah I was able to find some good workbooks cheap at Walgreens (The School Zone) to get them through for right now. I also took Creative Writing out of Garret's curriculum for now. He was stressing big time with what he already had to do and it was just too much. I may start adding in one assignment a week on an "easy" day.

Tomorrow we are going to go enter the kids art projects into the local fair. Nathaniel drew a castle, Garret painted a wooden castle bird feeder and Aleah painted a castle on canvas.... hm... can u tell my kids like castles??? They are each very original though.. Aleah's is of course, pink and purple and glittery. Garret's is rainbow colored with stars and hot wheels flame stickers and glitter. Nathaniel's is a simple pencil drawing with bad guys running up to it and the lookouts in the lookout towers shooting crossbows at them. Yea, my kids like the same things, but they still have their individuality.

Oh my GRACIOUS! you really CAN homeschool for free!

And I proved it today! I started out the day simply wanting to lay out a plan for my kids school binders. We are just getting started with homeschooling full time, so I am taking it kind of slow. Not to mention the fact that we really haven't had the money to get everything I *wanted* to get for this year, so I had resigned myself to making due until we could. I had the basics covered, sort of, LOL I have our math curriculum (unless I change it :D) and I had a basic idea of working on handwriting with them. That left reading, which for now was simply going to be reading aloud daily with the kiddos. I am waiting on the Explode The Code placement test, to figure out if/where I need to start them in those books. Thanks to some very dear friends, art, geography, and science are taken care of.


SO ANYWAY... lol... bear with me, I'm worn out LOL

All I planned to do today was to get a rough schedule down for the kids' school day and maybe set up their binders. Somewhere along the line I decided to see what kind of curriculum I could find on the internet just to "kill time" until I could get the other books I wanted for writing, spelling, and language arts. Let me tell you... I thought I had searched extensively before but OH MY GRAVY, I found a TON more things. I literally spent ALLL DAY searching, creating, printing and yelling at my printer LOL This is what I came up with:

For all three kids:

Handwriting
Reading
Math (using Math-U-see) actually, but found several worksheet creators for extra practice
Language Arts
Spelling/vocabulary
Creative writing

For the younger kids, I did have a few workbooks that I was able to pick and choose pages from for a couple of the subjects, but for Nathaniel (3rd grade) all I had was his math. Let's see if I can lay this out for you....

Handwriting -
http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/ Pretty good for creating your own.
http://www.handwritingforkids.com/
www.kidzone.ws/cursive/index.htm VERY Awesome site :)

Reading -
Now, first and foremost I LOVE http://www.starfall.com/ great for online practice when the young ones want to play on the computer. My kids cannot get enough of this site! I also printed off a couple of readers for the younger two for the week.
For the older ones http://www.abcteach.com/ is a great site for reading comprehension worksheets.

Math
http://www.mathusee.com/ has a worksheet generator. It's good, but not much variety really.
http://www.mathworksheetwizard.com/ literally 1000's of worksheets
http://themathworksheetsite.com/ a great generator, but some is subscription based.

Language Arts
www.education.com/worksheets - This is the only site I used for Nathaniel's Language arts - English - Grammar exercises REALLY great resources, not just for language arts either.. they have many grades and many subjects
http://www.abcteach.com/
www.superteacherworksheets.com/grammar excellent!

Spelling/vocabulary

www.superteacherworksheets.com/spellinglevelc.html This link will take you to the third grade spelling curriculum but they have grade 1-4 REALLY great resource
www.mrsperkins.com/dolch.htm This has all the Dolch word lists, phrases, and worksheets. really good for preparing for spelling bees, etc.

Creative Writing
Again...
www.superteacherworksheets.com/writingideas.com this is more for writing prompts but still good.
http://www.rhymer.com/ this is a rhyming dictionary.. pretty neat for those that get writers block just trying to rhyme.
http://www.abcteach.com/ has lots of great writing prompt worksheets as well as writing paper.




So I guess overall, my favorite websites are http://www.abcteach.com/ and http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/ Both of these also have custom worksheet generators.

SO, it is doable. That is, You CAN HOMESCHOOL, essentially, for FREE. However, you do need money for printer ink and lots of paper! Most of the pages I found printed fairly well in black and white, which was good considering I had no color ink :)

Please feel free to share this with anyone you like, but please do also include a link back to my blog.

Thanks :) and Happy Homeschooling!

Fun and Frugal

Hey everyone! www.funandfrugal.com is giving away an amazing prize package right now! go check it out!

life.... it's not really a box of chocolates....

it's a whirlwind of a roller coaster that you've never been on before and you can't see what's ahead because you are wearing blinders!

This is how I've felt lately. I have very little control over my life and even less of a vision as to where my life is going from here. I'm pretty sure I'm on the right track, that is assuming I have a choice of more than one track. But what if I don't? What if I have no choice but to ride this track until it ends or I fly off into oblivion? I know I want to be here, with my family and friends. But why does it all have to be so hard? Am I destined to be someone who never quite gets all that I want? Am I destined to live a life that is just a bit less than I want for myself and my family? I go from being all pumped up that things are gonna go my way, then I get thrown off track once again, a bump in the framework that i took going just a bit too fast perhaps. What then? Am I then on a different track, one that isnt meant for me? How do I get back to where I'm supposed to be? But then, maybe I am where I'm supposed to be, and the original track wasn't mine at all?

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I'm feeling a bit pensive right now. I should probably feel sad, or upset, or even angry, but amazingly, I don't. I feel very relieved. I feel like I am at a point in my life where things are changing quickly. All the things that have held me back for soooo long seem to be slipping away. This really has nothing to do with why I should be sad, just part of what makes me pensive I suppose LOL

I want to start crocheting again. It's been so long! I will have to dig into my stash and find some nice cotton to work something quick with so that I can get back into the hang of things. I used to do pretty well with it, so maybe I could start and etsy store :) Hey, it's not too late to start planning some Christmas gifts either!

I need to catch up on schoolwork though, honestly. My school work has suffered in the past because of me not being able to say NO. Now that the page has turned it's time to get back on track. Time to settle into a new routine and figure out whats what.

Aleah has 3 weeks off of gymnastics, then it's time for a new class for her. Thank goodness its on a different day! We are back to having class on Thursdays, which will be good because it keeps me from having to take the van two days in a row. I'm very thankful for this, since Tuesdays are going to be very busy this fall! Thanks to my good friend Jan, the kids will have Science, Geography, and PE on Tuesdays so that has made my first year homeschooling MUCH easier to prepare for!

I'm so glad I have decided to homeschool this year. Not only has it been very good for the kids already, but it has changed my life and we really havent gotten into it full swing yet! I have met a wonderful bunch of people that already mean the world to me! They have accepted me and taken me for what I am, not as they wish me to be. They already know many of my faults but still they care :) I've learned what friendship can really be like.

My schoolwork needs help right now. I've got two classes that are really kicking my hiney. Sociology and Intermediate Accounting 3. They require much more reading and work than I have been able to commit lately. That will change today. Today is the first day of the rest of the semester! LOL I am going to sit down today, and, after spending lots of time getting caught up, I'm going to look at my day and get back to a schedule. So many things have changed over the last year, I need to redo my control journal too. Hey, maybe I will rejoin Flylady. But not today. today is for getting caught up, not putting off.

I also need to workout today. I'm trying to decide if I want to start another 30 day challenge or if I just want to do a custom workout. I know this system works, and I know I can do it! For the first time in my life I actually KNOW i can do this LOL

Well, now that I've once again written a book, time to start the rest of my day. BTW this is what I'd call a "randomness" post. LOL Every now and then I get so overwhelmed with everything that is going on that I need to get it all out at once and there really is no rhyme or reason to it. I just randomly write about what I think of as I think it. You should try it sometime, even if you don't blog. It really does work to help you gain perspective.

TTFN :)

Girlz night.........a turning point?

OK, so last night was girls night out :) The Comedy Catch in Chattanooga sent me 8 free tickets to go see Henry Cho perform. Let me tell you HE WAS AWESOME :D Very funny, would certainly go see him again soon!

Thanks to all my girlyz who came and celebrated my birthday with me! Thanks for all the wonderful gifts too :)

Just for the record, my birthday isn't until the 10th. But this was the best night for us all to get together, so it worked :)

Anyway, after the show, Jan, Carol, and I went to the Awful Waffle and hung out for a while. Always lots of laughs when Carol is around. That girl is quicker than most comedians when you get her going. I'll be glad when she gets her break on stage :)

After Jan left Carol and I got to talking and found we have a few unexpected things in common. Part of our pasts cross at different points. lol That was certainly an interesting conversation not to be broadcasted over the general internet :) However, it did lead to a really great blast from the past. I got to speak with someone who I honestly didn't think REALLY knew I existed. Oh, yea, he's on my facebook, but well, that's a different story.

It's amazing how each person remembers things completely different than the other people involved. You get this vision of yourself and you develop opinions about what others see you as, and well, its a "knock in the head" :P when you find out that you were completely wrong. I'm finding myself looking back on a very strange period in my life and realizing that maybe it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was. Not quite so strange, maybe. We all go through warps in reality from time to time as we try to find ourselves. I look back and am thankful for what I went through during that time, because, honestly, it helped me to make the decisions I made later on. I knew what I wanted when it was time. I may not have known all along, but when it really mattered, I knew. I didn't have to guess. I didn't have to play any more games, or feel desperate or needy. I knew what I wanted and I got it. Not many people can say that. Of course, not many people get the chance to be as uncharacteristic as I did. The funny thing is, I did this twice in my life. Once when I was a senior in high school (no, I wasn't the goody goody everyone thought I was) and then once again after leaving the druggie I was with for 7 years.

I went wild, I had fun. I did things that I never thought I would ever do. NO I wasn't a drug addict or an alcoholic. I still didnt smoke. Good gods if I ever were to get hooked on something like that the world would be in certain trouble. I get high on life, and that's the only high I need LOL

But more than that, during these times I was very desperate. I needed something. I was looking for something. I have no clue really what, but I was clinging to the idea of someone to love. someone to love me. I didn't go about it in the right way. I had no clue. I developed strong crushes at the first sign of affection. I was so used to being "unloveable" that I latched on to that first hint, that first possibility.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for pity here or anything like that. I'm not sure what Im looking for except maybe a way to sort this all out. During both periods in my life, I developed an infatuation with unavailable men. I'm not sure why or if I even knew it at the time, honestly. But in some form or fashion they were all unavailable. As I look back on it now, it doesnt make any more sense, but it is more clearly explained.

I recieved an apology from that blast from the past last night. This meant a lot to me, because, seriously, I really felt like I had meant nothing to any of these people over the years. I'm not going to say I regret what happened, or blame any of them, because I don't. I wasn't someone that could have been dealt with rationally anyway, so it was completely acceptable for things to turn out the way they did.

Honestly, I thank everyone that I was involved with at these times. They have made it possible for me to be in a wonderful, loving, passionate relationship with my soulmate and never wonder "what if". Many women I know right now cannot say that. Even if they don't doubt their loves, they still can't say that they had every possibility to be with someone else. They don't necessarily know that there isn't another soul out there for them. I do. When I first realized my husband was my soulmate it was like a breath of fresh air. When I realized that all those things I had been through really didnt matter anymore, I felt like a weight was lifted off of me and I was free to be who I really wanted to be, no matter what.

I love my husband with all my heart and soul and he loves me. I trust him and he trusts me. I don't have to worry where he is, and he knows where I am. He holds my heart and I hold his. Without him, I would not be whole.

I feel my world is changing and I am so thankful to have people in my life who are ready to change with me, for better or worse. My husband has a quote for his tagline of his email:

"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely, in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting... WOW, what a ride!"--author unknown.

This is quickly becoming my philosophy. I can feel the adventure starting to heat up, starting to quicken the pace. I'm not sure I'm ready for it, but with my love and my friends by my side I will be able to handle it all!

Sometimes I wonder...

why do I allow myself to be hurt so easily? Why can't I just be happy with myself and be confident in who I am and not allow other people to tear me down? I am a beautiful woman with a wonderful husband wonderful children and a wonderful family! This is my life and I need to live it for me and the ones I love. Today is the first day of the rest of my life and I intend to start living it!

Lord of the Flies Preschool :(

Today was absolutely ridden with children who had no clue the proper way to behave and parents who had no clue how to take responsibility for their children!

Start at the gym: This little boy is running around acting like the lobby is a playground. I'm not too worried about it, cuz hey, we all have days like that, right? Well then my son starts it as well, then they both start walking and jumping across the chairs. I immediately take my son off the chairs, swat his behind and sit him down for a time out (he's 8 he should know better than that). Well, while he is in his time out, sitting rather nicely I must admit (cuz usually he doesn't) this kid comes over and hauls off and hits him in the back of the head. Now this little boy was probably 5 or so, and Nathaniel knows better than to fight with a younger child. I told the boy to please not hit my son and to leave him alone. The parent just sat their and didnt even acknowledge that the boy hit Nathaniel or anything!!!! Then, this same little boy started taunting Garret with a transformer toy. Offering to let him play with it and then at the last minute grabbing it away and stuffing it into his pocket and sticking his tongue out at Garret! I was appalled but still the mom did nothing. I told Garret just to leave the boy alone and stay away from him. Then as we were trying to leave, Garret and Aleah were in the changing area. As they tried to open the door this same little brat holds the door shut while Garret is screaming bloody murder trying to get out from the opposite side. Then all of a sudden as I'm trying to get to him, the kid shoves the door open and in the process pushes Garret over and he hits his head on the table. STILL NOT A WORD FROM THE MOTHER!!!!!! wth? Why can't mothers just admit their kid does wrong?????

Then, we go to McDonald's cuz Aleah earned 2 ribbons in Gymnastics and Dad wanted to reward her. We first get there and this grandmother is having to get an employee to extricate her baby granddaughter out of the high chair because she is so chunky she is stuck :( poor thing, she was soooo pretty, but had to weigh at least 50 lbs. I felt so bad for her. Then her brother (also about 3 times the size he should have been) is going all crazy and starts clawing and biting and trying to fight with Garret and Nathaniel while they were trying to go up into the play area. I told the boy not to try to pull them down the stairs while the grandmother just looked on. Then a bit later Garret comes down the slide screaming that the boy had bit him! Instead of simply saying, I'm sorry, and then disciplining the child, the grandmother blames it on the babysitter that he stays with! i finally made my kids just sit down until they left, because I was worried the boy would hurt them. I mean seriously, this kid was bigger than all three of mine combined. If he had really tried to hurt them, there was nothing they could have done. What gets me is that its not that this child had any difficulties that would account for such size or behaviour. when he was sitting down and talking to his grandmother he was a perfectly normal child, albeit a bit loud and disrespectful.

Well they finally left and the kids were able to play in peace. Then this group of girls comes in and I'm thinking, Ok this should be good, some girls for Aleah to play with. Well they are all different ages, probably about 3 to 14 or so. There were 5 or 6 of them together. Well they start screeching at the top of their lungs and the big girls are up in the "airplane" bubble and the little bouncy bubble making it shake so hard the entire structure is shaking. I'm sitting their thinking, ok, i'll give it a minute and their parents will stop them. But alas, no, still parents are ignoring them.

Then Nathaniel comes down saying the girls won't let them into any of the little play areas in the top of the thing. He said that they were hitting and yelling at anyone that came near the "cockpits" Thats when we finally just said forget it and left.

I have never seen a day full of so many kids and parents that have no clue how to behave. It's one thing if you are having and off day. My kids do all the time. My kids are no where near perfect, but I do my best to discipline them and keep them in line and keep them from hurting other children especially. It just gets me that these parents were RIGHT THERE. They heard the whole conversation, each time. They KNEW their kids had done wrong but were too whatever to do anything about it.

Testing

July 27, 2009

Ok, so I'm finally gonna start a new blog. I have used myspace in the past and still do to an extent, but I want a blog that is just out there :) I don't want to have to worry about logging into my myspace or whatever.

Anyway.... I've begun losing weight. I'm very proud of this. I'm about 10 lbs less than I started back in February, and most of that has been in the last month.

Erik and I bought the EA sports Active program for our Wii and are using that in conjunction with the Wii FIT. We have just about finished the 30 day challenge and I feel pretty good physically.

Current weight: 266

I can't believe I'm nearing the 250 mark again. I haven't been that weight since before I had my second son, Garret.

I'm going to try to get a couple of pictures taken this weekend and will post them when I do. I will also post a bit of background info soon for those who don't know me personally :)


That's all for now, thanks for reading.
Faith