Thursday, January 24, 2008

Nasty Computer

I've been off-line for more than a week! Aaah! Addiction withdrawal!
Somehow my husband brought a virus into our computer and we're trying to deal with the results. Our computer's still acting funny... It's shutting down on its own and booting us out of programs. All sorts of ridiculous things, but it is running. I know it could be MUCH worse.
So, I may not be checking in very often since our computer is still doing it's own thing.

Snow Baby



We got snow just DUMPED on us last week. It was fairly warm, too (in the 20's), so Abigail & I got to go outside and play! There was only about a foot on the ground, but look at her wallowing in it! First thing she did was get down on her knees and start crawling. Then she started piling it all on top of herself. Silly baby girl.
She LOVED the snow.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Jake's Birthday


Today was my husband's birthday!
It started out fairly rough- whining girls, depressed & cranky wife- but it ended well.
We went out to Chili's, then came home and had some cake & ice cream.
Deborah & I worked on painting a shirt for Jake today while he took a nap. He was pleased to get his 'I love my Daddy' Shirt! (One of those wacky numbers few men will wear outside of the house. :) We'll see how brave my man is in the weeks to come...)
He found an MP3 Player last week and has been sporting his early birthday present for the last week.
All in all, a good birthday was had.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Luna

My poor kitty has been very sick.
She started vomiting pretty much everything- even sips of water... The vet wanted to see her immediately.
We took her in, and of course, they chose to do the most expensive tests first- x-rays to check for blockages, and blood work to see if she had something really serious... Finally, when nothing panned out from those tests they went to the basic & cheap urinalysis.
Guess what? She had a urinary tract infection. A pretty serious one, apparently.
I was a little annoyed they didn't do that test first, since it costs more in the range of $50. Of course, the x-ray was about $150, and the the blood work was around $100... Throw the really expensive stuff at us first.
Oh, well. I can certainly understand checking for something that fit better with the vomiting. You don't automatically think UTI with severe vomiting.
So, she's been on antibiotics for a while. Such a patient kitty! She's let me give her the liquid drops so well. Better than my 2 year old!
She's been trailing along behind me like my shadow. And she's been sitting on my lap as often as possible. Much as I'm sad about her being so sick, I've thoroughly enjoyed the cuddling! She's not normally such a sweet lap kitty and it definitely helps make up for all the nast cleaning up after her I had to do last week...

Food

I enjoyed this blog very much...
Molly is in Seattle, and shares my love of chocolate. As far as I'm concerned, a dessert is not worth the sugar grams unless it contains chocolate...
http://orangette.blogspot.com

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Christmas Break is OVER!!!

Deborah went back to school today!!!
YAY!!!!!!
Thank you, God!

I love my oldest daughter, but good grief, she is exhausting.

One of the personality traits I appreciate in Abigail is her ability to entertain herself. Abigail can happily play by herself with play dough, Fisher Price Little People, dolls, books... Almost anything. And she can play by herself for 30 to 60 minutes with almost no intervention.
What a blessing!

Whereas my oldest cannot play by herself at all. She demands almost constant interaction. I don't know if this is because she is such an extravert or just what... Maybe 'cuz she was born first and I had more time when she was a baby? Whatever the reason, she wants someone to play with her ALL day when she's home. She doesn't seem to be able to play anything by herself- dolls, books, play dough... Everything has to be done with a partner.

It's not just that she'll beg for me to play with her. It's that if I can't (say I'm doing laundry or dishes) she wants to interact. Have me tell her a story, or tell me a story... I know I should be enjoying this. I know I should be thankful that I still have so much of her heart now. I know I should be the perfect Mommy and delight in my daughter's company 100% of the day.

But frankly, sometimes, I just want there to be some silence. I just want her to go away for half an hour and leave me alone! I want her to read a book, watch a movie or play with the legos and build a tower- BY HERSELF.

Yes, I know. I'm a selfish, evil sinner. And a failure as a mommy.
I should be so enthralled with this gift from God that I want her company all the time. I should be delighted with the idea of homeschooling her and teaching her everything she'll need to know to survive in the world. I should long for the chance to teach her scriptures and cooking and math.

But oh, how I look forward to her going to pre-school!
I know that when she's there she chatters all the time with her little friends. I know that when she's there she gets the opportunity to paint, garden and see baby chicks. She's introduced to other cultures (one of the other students came directly from Mexico and is learning English in their class!) and different foods and music. She interacts with other adults, plays outside in snow and inside on a tricycle. She is offered so many more opportunities to explore the world around her and what her body can do.

Plus, when I get the break from her, I enjoy my time with her much more. I'm more rested and able to interact with her. I'm more able to listen to her chatter when I've had silence for 4 or 5 hours... In addition, I have the time to play with Abigail (often prevented by Deborah's constant need for interaction!).

Thank you God for Deborah's pre-school!

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Rebecca’s Silly Survey

I created a silly survey for Jake... Here's my answers.
*****

20 silly Questions & 5 Serious Ones

SILLY:
1. Purple with pink polka dots or yellow with sparkles?
yellow with sparkles (what was I thinking when I wrote this??)

2. shoes or flip-flops?
shoes

3. Driving or walking?
driving, fast

4. Swimming or flying?
flying, fast

5. Best daydream (I’m not looking for embarrassing here!) ?
the flying one- where I'm flying over the whole world

6. The most embarrassing movie you’ve ever seen (not to you! to admit that you’ve seen!)?
The Cindy Crawford one from the early 90's, it was so bad I've blocked the title... There were 3 shower scenes! I was dating a guy who really liked her, and wanted to see it. This is the same guy I saw Leprechaun with... He had absolutely HORRIBLE taste in movies- for those of you who know me well and are curious: The guy was Wesley...

7. Tv character you’d like to have as a friend?
Macgyver would be cool to have around but he's always getting in trouble;
Phoebe is my favorite but heavens, she'd probably drive me crazy in real life;
Leo, the angel from Charmed is dang sexy, but he's always right- YUCK!;
For just a plain old good friend I think I'd pick... Ta-da! Wishbone! He's cute, he's cuddly and he knows how to share a good story. Tee-hee!

8. Favorite cartoon?
Dungeons and Dragons- I hate it that they killed this one!

9. What was on your lunch box in elementary school?
I don't remember! I think it was Holly Hobbie? I do remember that it was orange

10. Favorite game?
Guesstures or Charades

11. Do you own anything that’s sparkly?
beads, beads, and more beads! Also, the jewelry I've made for myself... Plus, some of the expensive items Jake's given me. Oh, and a lovely blouse I bought for the FLOT Christmas thing last year

12. The worst bathroom you’ve ever walked into?
This bathroom on a Company trip- it was in East Texas, and we called it 'the toilet to hell' forever after. It was so bad! I really can't begin to explain how bad it was. Hadn't been cleaned, no toilet paper, everything was stained dark brown, the water was slightly brown, and it smelled. Plus, it was like an outhouse- not attached to the gas station, and the walls were peeling and nasty. Everybody had to go pretty bad, and we'd been waiting for a long time... Half of us went, and the other half were like, no way! We drove on maybe half a mile and there was another one! Ha!

13. Your worst restaurant experience?
This one's from when my family was traveling... This waitress was horrid! She took our food away while we were still eating. I was holding my fork and literally had food in my mouth when she took my plate... The food wasn't great, but not too bad. But the service!

14. A silly paint story?
When my BSU went down to the Association's camp to do a clean-up for a couple days. I ended up re-painting the showers/bathroom's with a couple friends. I really like painting, but had NO idea how big those bathrooms were 'til we were only half-way through... We were so silly! At least we didn't paint each other too much. And we had good music.
My worst paint story also involves BSU and a paint hand print on my shirt front and a very embarassed guy...

15. Got a horrible bug story?
Traveling with Company, stopping at a restaurant, praying over our food, having Curry act really weird during the prayer, and refused to eat his food. Then finding out when John went to pay that a cockroach had crawled off Curry's plate. John refused to pay for Curry's meal 'cuz he didn't eat it after the roach crawled off. The manager flipped out and wanted us to pay! Are you kidding???? They're lucky Curry didn't yell 'roach!' and have EVERYONE in the place leaving!! We were all so hungry and tired... I almost wish Curry had told us and we'd all just walked out but this restaurant was one of the only ones still open...

16. A horrible nemesis from school?
this horrible girl in elementary school... Her name was June and she clawed my hand when I was drawing on the board during a rainy day recess.

17. A best friend from school?
Jane from England, she moved away halfway through one year, but came back!!

18. A best birthday memory?
My birthday in Germany with Company

19. A favorite tea?
Either peppermint tea or nighty-night tea from Organics

20. A favorite/can’t-live-without-it personal care product?
My Aquaphor! An ointment/lotion. I use it on my hands and lips during the winter... My hands get so dry in the winter that they bleed..


SERIOUS:
1. Who would you like to interview?
Mother Theresa- after reading this article on her where they looked at some journals & letters. She hadn't sensed/heard God for the last 2/3rds of her life... I want to know how she continued to be faithful to Him & live out her life of service for Him even when she questioned & doubted Him. Amazing look at a special woman...

2. One thing you wish everybody knew? (yes, yes, it’s that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world! but I mean something else…)
That high school isn't forever, if you can make it through okay, life is WAY WAY better after- This comes from all my teaching experience. So many teenagers think that what everybody thinks of them during this horrendous time of life is SO important. But when it's all said and done, high school lasts only four years...

3. If there was one thing you could change about yourself what would it be?
I wish I could eat anything and not gain weight! okay, seriously- I wish my neck would never hurt again...

4. If you were given the opportunity to change one thing in your past what would it be?
That I'd taken piano lessons... So many of the horrible things that have happened to me have made me who I am. Taking piano lessons would even change a bunch of stuff so it's probably a dangerous thing to want to go back and change. I might have stayed in the music department and finished my music degree instead of switching over to a Drama degree...

5. One thing you want to do before you die?
go back to Europe