Toth Talks

Day 9

2012-01-09T16:20:00.000-08:00

So TODAY, the temps were very spring like and so I told the kids "get out there while you can!". And so, Frankie, in true Frankie fashion, puts on his winter coat and pulls up the hat! I think that kid thinks it's a hoody sweatshirt. Once the coat goes on, it usually doesn't come off until he gets home! Oh well, they got out there anyway! I told them the trampoline time could count as their 30 mins of PE. Gracie went out earilier with me though and had already put in a good 45 mins. I went out to take stock of all the yard projects we are going to have and to burn some stuff in the burn barrell. I love the smell of burning trash (it was mostly paper and boxes, so it wasn't stinky stuff) however I always worry when it gets real smokey if someone is going to think the garage is on fire and call 911 and the firestation down the road will show up. We called once, not long after we moved in because it smelled like something electrical was on fire in the air outside, and they came lights and sirens! I was so embarrassed, then I was more embarrassed when they couldn't find anything. The weird thing was, when you walked through the middle of the yard it was very hot but there was no rhyme or reason.....The other "experience" I had with the firemen, one day I was out blowing leaves in the front yard with the leaf blower, (those things are really loud btw) and the truck was on it's way back from a run. Well they must have come from a boring run and needed some excitement, because as they got close to where I was, they blasted the sirens real quick to startle me and they are lucky they didn't have to turn around and get me out of the tree I just about jumped in when they did it!!! See if I send any Halloween candy THEIR way! They TRICKED me for sure! WOW! I can really get off track can't I?! Now, how did all that come from a post about how nice the weather was today..... THIS is why my house is full of 1/2 fiished projects, my mind easily goes from one thing to the next without any reasoning...... You've heard of the 7 degrees of seperation, I can easily do that with my thoughts as well and be able to come back full circle!

Day 8

2012-01-09T13:49:00.000-08:00

Well, had I known how today was going to go, I would never have made yesterday a day off! We all showered last night with plans to go to church today. I got up to let the dogs out and felt all achy all day! I layed back down with the intentions to get back up in a few minutes (which no one ever does) and just could NOT get myself back up. I felt horrible! I know Chris had been struggling with a cold all week, but this was not like a cold. My first thought was flu, because of being so achy. HOWEVER, I had been working so hard all week, with fruits and veggies, hand washing, hand sanitizer etc... so SURELY I could not be getting sick. Well I stayed in bed until lunch time. Thankfully, I had put a roast in the crockpot last night, and THANKFULLY my mom had taught Gracie how to peel and cut potatoes, so I was able to ask her to do that and add them to the roast earlier in the day (I had put carrots in when I let the dogs out). **which I just want to point out, it really does pay to teach our kids how to do things, for times just like this. Yes it may take a little longer at the time, but you will be greatful later**** Anyway, I digress, after lunch, my ears were feeling a bit plugged and my lymph nodes near them ached. I got up and felt very dizzy and had a hard time focusing. Later while laying down, I did not feel nauseas, but ended up running to the bathroom and "unloading". My stomach never hurt, didn't do it any more after that, but for whatever reason, I was sick. So I stayed in bed and slowly added things (especially saltine crackers) to try eating the rest of the day. Now this may be a TMI post, but this IS how I spent the day. I will also say, my family did a wonderful job waiting on me hand and foot and I wanted for nothing, including their love all day!

Day 7

2012-01-09T13:35:00.001-08:00

NOPE!! Didn't even make it a whole week! I was exhausted from trying to implement all my new goals, AND could not figure out a picture to take to represent a day of doing absolutely nothing! Which is what I did all day. I used to try to make Sunday's a day of rest, however, that never ends up happening, so I decided to take today....so my picture for the day is....NOTHING and that is how the day went! AND it was wonderful!

Day 6

2012-01-09T13:33:00.000-08:00

So today I spent the day helping my friend Barb go through her attic and sort, purge and organize. It's so much easier to do someone else's stuff than your own! LOL. But I have to say she was a good sport about it. She also has a nice attic space (better than my basement) for storing stuff, I ended up quite jealous of it! At any rate, we worked hard all day! However, when I planned my menu for the month, obviously days that you plan stuff last minute are not taken into account. So I was not able to fix the "planned" meal of grilled basil chicken. However I improvised with a meal I did have on the menu, just for a different day....Grandad's chilli. The bad thing is, no matter how I try or do exactly what he does, mine never tastes the same. It didn't help that I had no macaroni, so I had to substitute broken pieces of spaghetti. At any rate, I have watched him make it. I have tried to copy what he does, but it never comes out like his. But we made do with what I made. It was better than eating our or grabbing a pizza like we usually do when I have been super busy all day.......

Day 5

2012-01-09T13:17:00.000-08:00

So today, I took my friend Barb, to her therapy. She recently had surgery and could not drive. I was happy to get to spend some time with her, and happy that the kids are old enough, that at times I can leave them here while I go run errands. Anyway, after her therapy, we did lunch and some Sam's Club shopping. When I took her home, she showed me she had some long stuffed animal like things that were dog toys. She got a really good deal on them, but her dogs were not interested. So I bought them off her and brought them home to miss. chews alot! She LOVED them. Hunter even got in on the action. At one point it was a tug of war with one dog on each end. Tried to get a picture of THAT but they quit when I moved! So at the end of the day, I was quite exhausted. Evidently so was my baby girl, however she was NOT going to give up her new favorite toy, nor risk someone taking it while she slept. This was how she slept for the next few nights, with whichever one she had with her before bed. Meanwhile, I am constantly walking through the house picking up the "guts" of fluff she keeps ripping out of the them!

Day 4

2012-01-05T08:14:00.000-08:00

AHHH! The memories! Today, my brother called and said he had a box of stuff for me. He's been cleaning out his house and whenever people do that, I some how get offered the cast offs! LOL. Hey, one man's trash is another man's treasure! In this case, it really was a treasure. He had been given a big box of games from my grandmother's house after she had passed away. Games and toys that we played with while growing up there. As I went through the box with my daughter (at 9 o'clock at night!), a flood of memories came back to me! These were the games we grew up on! And while yes, some are still around, such as Aggravation, they no longer look the same.....

I mean do you remember when the checker pieces were WOOD and not plastic!

Still not sure what the piece below is. I have put a picture out on facebook hoping someone might recognize it and help me out.

It was funny to see the games like "Easy Money" which is like either a predicessor or generic version of Pay Day! lol Or "Careers" which is an awful lot like Life!

I also found an old 1978 Tonka Toy Gas Station, that I can remember spending more time trying to remember how to assemble it, than actually playing with it! But for me, that was the fun part! It's missing some pieces now, but I actually found one on ebay that's also missing some pieces. Debating on buying it and seeing if two "parts" can make one whole! At any rate, it sure was fun going down memory lane with a bunch of old games/toys........

Day 3

2012-01-05T08:03:00.000-08:00

The Christmas tree is finally down, which means back to some normalcy. It also means a bit more room. The dog crate can go back in it's spot, and out of my bedroom! This is it's usualy home and obviously the dogs are missing it! HA! HA!

It's also time to get the Valentines decorations out and up. I don't like to wait until February to put them up because then there isn't much time left to enjoy it. Plus my daughter's birthday is at the beginning of Feb so that ends up taking precidence at that time. So, I must say, as much as I enjoy Christmas, I really enjoy the house getting back to normal!

Day 2 Working on more resolutions

2012-01-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

It's a good thing Frank does not read my blog, I doubt he would be pleased with this picture as he said I as annoying him by taking pictures! Today I got most of my CHRISTmas decorations down, except, as seen in this picture, the tree. And putting the Valentines Decorations up, which as of this post are not done either, so I have a half Christmas and half Valentines Day house. And I think it will stay that way until tomorrow as I am pooped! Amid the mess of this massive project, the kids had to also start on their "new adventure" that is known as the new chore charts. One of those items is 30 mins of excersise, which is what Frank is doing here. He chose Wii Fit, and is doing some karate game on there. Today, I have also accomplished getting their school stuff all caught up, entering some more of my grandmother's diary (that's a forever ongoing project to get over 40 years worth typed and saved on the computer), making healthy meals (let me tell you we were def. eating to live and not living to eat today, cuz it sure was not so tasty), then after lunch is when I starte taking down the Christmas stuff and here it is after 6PM and I am over it for the night! Ready to go soak in nice wonderful warm bath (it snowed today and is very cold) and read a good book and then crawl in to bed for the night!

365 days Day 1

2012-01-01T17:04:00.000-08:00

So I have seen several people doing the 365 pictures a year where you document every day of the year with atleast one picture and journal just a bit with it. I tried to start that last year....didn't get very far. But being one to never quit anything for good, I decided to give it a try again. Maybe doing it on my blog, I can kill two birds with one stone. I can keep up on the blog and hopefully on my 365 pictures. Here's to hoping 2012 will be the first year I actually KEEP some of my resolutions!

So my first picture is my first attempt of the new year to get organized AND one of my other resolutions, to actually try to put to the test some of the things I discover on Pinterest. I actually have tried several recipes and tried a few tips already, but this year I want to start documenting for my tested and reviewed pins! I saw this idea and thought it perfect, so when purging stuff the other day, I came upon this shoe organizer we had originally bought for my daughter for her Barbies. Well she doesn't really play with them any more and wanted to take it down. Thankfully I had seen the idea on Pinterest to use it in your pantry for things like mix packets, fruit snacks etc.... So while starting to put my groceries away, I remembered that and got to it. I also got out my handy dandy label maker (it always makes things APPEAR organized if you stick a label on it!) and labeled the ones we buy frequently and left the misc ones blank. But now that I have done this and no longer have them shoved in a ziplock bag in the pantry, I can see I need not to buy taco seasoning again for a while! HA HA! I also like the whole repurpose/reuse thing as well......Here's to hoping to become more organized and less STUFF in 2012! Oh! AND to keeping our resolutions!

Great Wolf Lodge

2011-10-05T09:47:00.000-07:00

Well, we had talked about it for a long time.....and finally this year we made the trip to Great Wolf Lodge for Frankie's 13th birthday! He got to invite his best friend Blake (who has never missed a birthday since they were in kindergarten!) and we also invited some good family friends to go as well. The only problem, at 13 and 10 the kids are getting a little too old to fit comfortably in the back of the car for an extended trip! lol It's pretty bad when one of the boys suggests the quiet game!

So you can imagine their joy when finally they saw the sign for GWL!!!

We got the room that had the KIDS CABIN..... so they had their own space and their own tv! I thought it was very cute!

The boys took the bunk beds.....

And Gracie took the daybed.....

The lobby was all decked out for Halloween! Very fun, but we were one week too early for the Halloween activities.....Not that there isn't plenty to do any other time. It is definetly designed with kids in mind. A mystery game, an arcade, a kids spa, etc.....

The views from the lobby windows, but unfortunetly, it did not capture the full enormity of the place! There were so many different pool areas, and several places for little bity kids and it was just so big, you could not see the whole place unless you were up on the stairs waiting in line for a slide.

The wave pool is where the boys spent most of their time. Every 10 minutes a wolf woud howl and the waves would start up like you were in the ocean! Then there would be a brief lull in the water where it was calm and the pool would clear out for the most part, and then the wolf would howl and they would all came a runnin again!

When one kid would be in there, you would send another kid in to retrieve the first one and neither one would come out! It was more like the Bermuda Triangle than the Wave Pool, for once they went in, you never saw them come out!!

What made for very comical action was if you fell trying to get out. Every time you would try to stand up, another wave would come and knock you down! The boys actually liked this effect and would attempt to crawl out and therefor get the effect!

Frankie finally emerging! He used the ladder instead of tring to walk out the other side! lol

Then there was the Lazy River! Now THAT was more my speed! You could sit or lay on a tube and let the current take you around! The only problem, it was so shallow, unless you sat in the tube, you risked scraping your toes or knees! Ha! Ha!

The Rollercoaster Slide! It's the long blue tunnel! It also always had the longest line. It went so fast, Chris and Gracie caught a little air on it! It litteraly lifted them off the slide for a few seconds!! There twords the bottom is a big ol' bowl like slide....we nicknamed it the toilet bowl! It was very much like being flushed down a toilet! I allowed Gracie to talk me into going on it! Frankie was right in his description of it....FAST! Let's just say as we were going down I think the whole waterpark learned Gracie's full name!!!

One of the very few things I can complain about the place (which is NOT very many) is how many stairs you have to climb to get up to the slides. And if you are afraid of heights, and you have to stand in line for any length of time....not pretty! And if you DON'T have to stand in line, you don't get a chance to stop and catch your breathe before being plunged down the slide!!! It all makes for a very light headed experience!

So Chris and the kids convinced me to go on "The Family Slide". Such an innocent DECIEVING name!!! The kids went on one raft before us, then Chris and I in the second. He was supposed to make it so I went down facing front, however his insistance that I get in first, along with some probable conspiring with the guy who gave us the heave ho down the slide, put me going down backwards!!! I still get a headache thinking about it! No I did NOT enjoy the ride, in fact I felt motion sick for much of the rest of the day! However Chris and the kids loved it all day, so that is what counted!

Chris and the kids coming down "The Family Slide"....... above and emerging from it below......

Gracie in all her glory!!!

The "Toilet Bowl" to the right of this picture, and where you emerge from it in the middle of the picture. Then, I guess as a consolation as to how your gonna feel afterwards (literally hard to walk) it takes you right into the lazy river!

Finally, on the way home, it was a much more quiet ride ! Except for the time we sat still in traffic due to an accident, the trip home went much faster than the trip there! Doesn't that always seem to be how it is. I wonder if part is due to the anticipation of where your going!

Poor Hunter

2011-09-30T16:09:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when you leave two warped children alone with the Halloween box and a dog.......poor thing!

A NOVEL idea!

2011-09-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

So i have a penpal who lives in Scotland. We have had fun telling each other about things we do in our home countries. I recently told her about geocaching. She told me, they have not heard of that over there, that she is not sure it has caught on over there yet. BUT that they DID have a guy that hid a golden, jewel covered rabbit and then wrote a book with clues in it leading to the rabbit. She said it took 5 years for someone to finally find it and the book, in the meantime, became a best seller! Now THAT is a good idea!.
She said they also do not have yardsales very often, however once a year they have a car/boat sale, where people line their car/boats up at a local school and sell stuff out of them! These are just some of the reasons i love having a penpal!

Back To School

2011-08-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

Well we headed back to our homeschool this year. Using a new curriculum this time. Switched on Schoolhouse. So far I like it alot better than the Abecca videos. Plus, once Gracie hits 7th grade (in two years) I only have to start buying new curriculum for one since she can use Frankie's hand me downs! YEA to SOS for allowing that! PLUS Gracie was super excited to start school after we went through how it was going to work, that's half the battle for the year, getting HER excited! PLUS it does most of the grading for me! YEA for all of the above.

Well I have been planning for weeks for this day. Making sure not to make plans with any friends so all my attention would be on the kids. Well as normal, no planned day around here goes as planned. Even though I had walked the kids through stuff on the computers of how it all works, I guess until you actually DO the work, you just don't know. Both had many occasions that they needed my help. So did several other things needing to be addressed, like a repair man, getting supper going in the crockpot, addressing a couple emails, and cancelling a service contract with Mr. Quick. ALL at the same time. But I am happy to say, I never lost my cool through all that. In fact I only lost my cool once, with Gracie, with Math! That evil evil evil little subject! It truly is my nemesis! But we got through it. She got through her piano practice and we got to the nature park to look for a few geocaches as our PE. I decided, while the weather is nice, it's best to try for some FUN excersising. The kids, while exhausted after hiking for an hour, were thanking me for getting to have some fun afterwards.
The kids were both happy to have such short school days. I was impressed as well, until I looked at the schedule for later in the month. It appears, they try to EASE the kids into things the first week. Both kids having 5 subjects to work on today and 4 tomorrow. However, as I looked into the weeks ahead, there were days Gracie will have up to 16 things to work on! However, that includes all projects, tests and quizes. So while it looks overwhelming, it may go fast. We shall see.
After last year, I decided Gracie would be sitting in whatever room I was in while working on school so I could answer any questions and help keep her on track. We had bought one of those big round chairs at goodwill a year or two ago. I had brought it upstairs (from the basement where it ended up) Saturday to have it ready for today. She opened it and was using it in the living room all weekend. Wouldn't you know it, today, when we put it in my office, the stupid thing broke! SOO now we can go find a new chair! But I think her being with me is going to work out well. Hopefully tomorrow, we won't have so many "issues" arise and the day will go smoother. Although I must say, as first days go, I think we got alot accomplished. Ecspecially considering this family of late risers had to start getting up so early!

To Be a Christian

2011-08-24T11:43:00.000-07:00

I was looking through the documents in search of something and came upon some old poems I wrote years back. I still really like this one, so I thought I would put it on here.

To Be a Christian

What’s it like to be a Christian, one might ask

There’s a lot of hard work, it’s not an easy task

Then why do you do it? Some may say

Because in the Bible, it says to obey

But what do you get? What’s the reward?

To see the Lord Jesus, is what I look toward

How do you know, how are you sure?

Because my faith and trust are totally pure

Surely it’s boring, you aren't having fun...

I laugh and joke, just like everyone

I try to not to sin and to keep it clean

Nothing hurtful, spiteful, rude or mean

What if you fail and continue to sin?

I confess my wrong and ask forgiveness from Him

Aren’t you worried what others may say?

I only care where I am on judgment day

How do you continue, how do you go on?

Because if I didn’t, everything would be wrong

How do you become a Christian, what do you do?

Trust in Jesus, accept His gift to you

Build a relationship between you and He

And He will provide you with all that you need

So why does he do this, what does he gain?

That by your own choice, from the Devil you refrain

By your own will, you choose His love for you

You put Him first in all that you do

When you do all that, it brings glory to His name

And your life will never again be the same

Henry Ford Museum

2011-07-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

Day 2, the Henry Ford Musuem! One of my favorites due to the Homemaking stuff!

There is an actual size airplane behind them! This muesum is huge!!!

The spectrum of things the museum covers is insane! You have government, to pop culture to vehicles to dollhouses! This is the "The signers". I am assuming the signers of the declaration of Independence, I was too busy taking pictures to read much! haha!

I also love how interactive it all is. Henry Ford's motto was that kids learned better by doing and than by reading. Here Frankie gets to do both!

This is typical equipment from the Reveloutionary War period. Note how the bed comes out of the trunk!! Pretty smart if you ask me!

Abraham Lincoln's Life mask and Cast of his hand.....

The chair Lincoln was shot in. The chair was released to the theater owner. His wife tried to donate it to the museum, but the person who received her letter did not think Mr. Ford would want something as gruesome as that. So the woman sent it to auction. Later a different Museum employee ended up winning it at the auction! So they paid for something they could have had free.....lesson in communication maybe?

The bus Rosa Parks made famous. When the museum went in search of the bus, it was found abandoned in terrible shape. Through documents they verified that it was indeed the bus, and refurbished it to look as it did back then. Later when Rosa Parks died, they lent the bus to be parked outside the building she was laid out at.

The museum doesn't just have old stuff. here is something from 2010!!! Although it looks as if it's from the future!!

They have many displays of furniture through out the centuries! I did not take the time to read all of them yet, but I did take pictures of the signs so I can go back later! I wish I had taken more time to read while there!

A litle potty chair......

A big potty chair! you lift the seat on this chair and hidden behind that front is a pot!!!

This dresser has it's own little hidden treasures.....

The top turns and there is a little sink and faucest and basin to keep water in! Plus a mirror! It was sooo cool!

It took us actually reading to figure out the thing on the left is the mold to make the chairs on the right!

This was a baby swing!! Not sure how safe it was, but there you are.....

An armchair!? Where there are certainly plenty of places to put your arm!! or you could say the chair itself has plenty of them!!

One of my most favorite parts of the museum! The kitchens through the years! this one is representing a late 1700's kitchen!

This one is a kitchen from the 1840's.....

This one is the 1890's.......

And my favorite of them all... the 1930's!!

This was not a normal doll house. This was a scaled replica of one of the Ford's homes, that Henry had made for his wife so she could figure out where to put the furniture! Can you say spoiled rotten! lol yes i am jealous!

There were also lots of other normal doll houses! One day, I want to own a dollhouse like these!

There was also a play house, that even an adult could enjoy! hee hee! How nice for her to match the colors of the house!

Oh the many stoves America has had through the years!

This bit of machinery, can pick your corn, husk it, and grind up the husks and cobs into grain all at the same time! That's insane!!!

This was sooo funny! After WWII this was supposed to be a type of prefabricated homes that they could sell and ship to anywhere. There was not enough homes when all the soldiers came back from war and this was one of the ideas they came up with. Needless to say, they did not take off and only 2 were ever manufactured, this is one of them.....

It was a round metal house with very little room. Think along the lines of the amount of room in a trailer!

Instead of a dresser, you had this little thing, where you push the button and the "shelves" rotated like a rotissery oven! And those were mighty small shelves to begin with let me tell you!

A rare photo of Lincoln without his famous beard! Doesn't he look different!

This soldier was shot through the pelvic bone. Years later it still did not heal properly and in the photo he is holding a drainage tube. He took the picture to send along with his letter asking for benefits after the war......

Next to the "Weiner Mobile" they had a lifesize hotdog bun the kids could lay in and pretend to be a hotdog....

My favorite era, the 1930's.

The hippie era of getting back to the basics!

Along some of the walls they had different items from the different era's. Another one of my favorite eras!

In this era they even have a bra!!! hahaha! Good thing Frankie wasn't with us girls at this point in the museum! He won't even look at the Victoria Secrets windows at the mall!

Henry Ford did a wonderful job of putting together this museum and the people in charge since he passed have kept it up. There is so much to see and many museums have since tried to copy his style. But there will only ever be one Henry Ford. His life story is extremely interesting as well. I highly recommend reading it and then visiting the musuem and village afterwards!

Greenfield Village

2011-07-04T08:08:00.000-07:00

Years ago when I was in highschool, we visited my Aunt and Uncle in Michigan and went to the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. I have wanted to go back ever since. This year was the year I was able to take MY kids back! First we went to Greenfield Village. Henry Ford has collected all kinds of homes and antiques so that we do not forget our history and where are roots came from! The homes and such are in the Village while the automobiles and other artifacts are in the Museum. If you ever need a wonderful, interesting place to visit where learning is fun for the kids, this is the place to go......

At the front of the Village. My Uncle Bill, Frankie, Gracie and Aunt Peggy......

I love looking at all the gardening they do and getting ideas for back at home.......

More gardening ideas.......

This picture was the first one ever taken of a plane in flght. The Wright Bros. had the guy out there to take the picture. The plane was only in the air for a matter of seconds! Afterwards, they asked the photographer if he got the picture....his reply "I'm not sure! I got so excited!" They had to wait to get the film back weeks later to see if he got the shot! As you can see, he did!

I think I will employ this process on my peas next year.....

A reenactment of the Wright Bros coming home to their sister after a successful trip testing their airplane. These actors were very good! We really enjoyed them. There was a boy sitting in front of me that kept taking pictures and video taping, "Orville Wright" referred to him as those "newspaper men"! O.K. it was funny the way HE did it! lol

Frankie trying to follow a chicken through a hole in the bushes! Luckily he stopped short of getting stuck!

I asked Gracie if she had any idea why they would have a basket of corn cobs in the outhouse....she thought they had to keep busy at all times and would shuck corn while sitting there.......ummmmm no! haha!

The chickens Frankie was chasing. I still say....ONE DAY I WILL have my own chickens!!!

The first house to be wired for electricity. It was across the street from Edison's office, and it was used as a boarding house for his workers.

Glad they started putting it inside the walls. It doesn't look so nice outside of them!

The kids did get along for the majority of the trip, I must say the threats made against them if they didn't, worked!

Aunt Peggy and Uncle Bill, kept going.......

When the kids pooped out!!!

Those red hat ladies are everywhere!

Love this picture of Aunt Peggy and Uncle Bill, just wish the tree was centered more!

The end of the Village day! Everyone was still smiling so that was good!

Good morning suprise!

2011-07-04T07:18:00.000-07:00

So I let my dog out the front door the other morning and he goes tearing off to the right chasing a bird! Meanwhile, I am sitting on the front steps and hear a tiny little "meow" over and over. I look between the bushes and the house and see this little kitten coming my way. No mama in sight. Hunter, in the meanwhile is STILL chasing birds! Now, for a side note, my husband has been HOUNDING me to get a kitten, but as he already has 2 big birtha cats, that do nothing but cause problems, I kept saying no.

However I could not in good conscience leave this poor defenseless and dare I say it, cute, kitten out there to fend for itself. So I took it and showed the kids, called the husband, emailed him pictures and yes, we now have a new member of the family. I told the kids they had to wait on their dad to come home to name it, but they started calling it mystery, and since it had a M stripe on it's forhead, figured that would probably stick.

It was such a snuggler! I thought it should be called Maggie, and my husband agreed.....until he got home and discovered Maggie was a boy, so it became "Gibbs" from the show NCIS! I thought McGee would have been better, but the husband and kids seem to like Gibbs, so even though I rescued it, I think I lost the battle on the name!

NOW Hunter figures out to check him out!!! So have the Old gals Chris already had, and let me tell you, Gibbs has had them having to be a little more active and aware and a little less.....shall we say rocking chair cats!

fingers and sandy soil.....

2011-07-04T07:07:00.000-07:00

When we moved in our home 6 yrs ago, we knew it had a septic tank and well water. We knew we would have to have the tank cleaned out every so many years. What we did NOT know (but we have a feeling the previous owners did) was that the fingers (the pipes that slowly drain the septic water out into the yard) were the original ones from when the house was built back in the 50's. We had constantly had water coming up in the yard right by the tank. We assumed it was due to the tank being full. So we called the first people we found in the phone book to come pump it out. It did not go away. In fact it got worse. We had them come pump it out again.....they cracked our lid and said it was our fault.....grrr. So we lived with this ever growing muck in our yard.

Finally I had had enough. I found a different company right near us that would come out and see what was going on and not charge us to diagnose the problem. We found the greatest company. It's family owned and take their reputation very seriously and are very honest people. They could not find the "fingers" so they had to come back with the back hoe and dig to find them......Now here's a little info you may not know, I sure didn't. Years ago (like when our system was put in) they wanted you to put the fingers way down underground so they wouldn't flood your yard. Ours were like 4 ft underground. In the last 20 yrs or so, they figured out it's better to go only 2 ft so the ground dries quicker. Long story short, all ours were disenegrating AND needed brought up to the 2 ft level. So the deal was struck and the job scheduled, and rescheduled and rescheduled, as mother nature kept deciding to drop rain down on us when they were supposed to come out. Finally the day arrived, and so did my aunt for her scheduled visit and my nephew, needing to be babysat AND my brother and his friend to help swap out refridgerators for me......because around here no day ever goes as planned! lol It was definetly an interesting process....

Last year I had planted my garden out in front of the shed in the middle of the yard. It was too big and I decided to move it and make it smaller. Thank you Jesus for looking out for me, or as you can see, the "finger's" would have reached right through my garden and THAT is not the extra pair of hands I needed in the garden!

I don't know what I was expecting, but I was startingto be concerned that they were going to go over all the way into the pool! lol But we were all facinated by how fast they worked! The started in the morning and finished up just after lunch!

Here you can see the "rows" for each finger. As they finished one, and dug the next, he just dumped the dirt on the previous row so all you saw was the front of the opening. The crew was very impressed with my sandy soil. They said it is a dream for a septic owner and if all their jobs were that easy they would LOVE doing them. I've always wanted to be admired for my sandy soil.....all girls secretly do!

Wow! They certainly did expose quite a bit of my beautiful sandy soil! It got turned every which way. My aunt and mom were wondering if they were going to flatten all that soil out before they left.....

Wonder no more "Louie" and his trusty back hoe (which may I add, he was sooo good with. You would think it was his actual hand they way he had control over those things!!! He could probably pick roses without crushing them as gentle as he could move that thing!) to the rescue!! *** Note, the large pile of "weeds" to the left of his picture was our old melon patch that also had a pile of sod from the old garden on it. Because it was a pile of dirt, we could not mow it and it was becoming a weed garden. Good ol' Louie, took that hand of his and flattened it out for me! What a guy!!!

And in no time flat, so was the ground! The final product! Took about 15 minutes off my mowing time! HAHA! Now we have to wait until Sept to plant grass seed so it all has time to settle. And the final word from Louie (and I am guessing God speaking through him) no more gardens or digging over the area. It could mess with the drainage. I had been contemplating trying again, too, after watching a video. I guess God decided He'd had enough of THAT garden! hee hee!

I hear voices.....

2011-05-30T05:33:00.000-07:00

we had such a busy weekend, but a good one. while working in the kitchen, i had the radio on and the song "i hear voices" came on. the singer talks about hearing the voices of people who had given him advice etc... anyway, it got me to thinking of the things i remember people saying that still stick with me......i remember my grandma saying "look for something before you ask where it is".....that was a big one that now is a pet peeve of mine when people don't look first....wonder if she had it said to her when she was young as well and it became a pet peeve of hers! lol i also hear my mom saying "don't fight other people's battles for them, you'll just get yourself in more trouble then them".....how true that one was! unfortunetly had to live that one for it to sink in. i hear my dad telling me "be careful what you say, once it's out there you can appoligize but the damage is done" i do TRY to remember that one when i am mad, but sometimes my anger gets ahold of my mouth before my memory does. when i look at the stars at night, i hear my cousin telling me "i think the stars are made from flashlights", no, that is not any kind of advice but a fun memory of us laying in my granny's trailer and coming up with silly little ideas of what things were made from. i can hear my granny's laugh, my aunt's laugh, my brother calling my name.....none of it advice by just voices i hear when i think of them....anyway, just something i was thinking about......wonder what voices other people hear and what they are saying.....

Red Eye Correction

2011-05-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

Who in the world gets pink eye when they are 35 yrs old? It's like getting chicken pox as an adult! Well, evidently I do! And isn't pink eye protocol, that you wake up one morning and your eye/s are matted shut? Who has it come on all of a sudden while tearing a seam out of a sleeve? Honestly, if I could have blown my eye as much as I did my nose, I think it could have gotten cleared up. But instead I was resorted to wiping it with a wet wash cloth. However, the good news..... when I went to minute clinic (thank goodness for the invention of minute clinic) she said, don't let anyone eat or drink after you. I said, but I'm the mom, I cook all the meals. She informed me, well have your husband order take out and bring it home to you! I said, can I get a prescription for THAT?!

Old Records

2011-05-02T19:27:00.000-07:00

So, a few YEARS ago, my mom gave me this software. It's to use to convert old records, cassettes, 8 tracks (yes I DO know how old THOSE are!) all over to a cd or mp3 file. Great idea RIGHT?! YES! IF it was user friendly. Me, being technology lacking, am not so friendly when using this! Btw, I finally found said software again, after finally cleaning and organizing my room!

At first I was so excited! I read the directions, they seemed pretty simple. I COULD DO THIS! I got out all the old records I wanted to start with! (don't look at the ugly carpet they are sitting on, it's horrific, but they want us to pay money to replace it) I couldn't wait to be listening to them on my ipod! I had visions of getting them on my Dad's ipod and getting him to actually USE the ipod we gave him....a few year's ago.

Well, after THINKING I was doing it right, and playing 19 songs, then realizing, I had "converted" dead air, I THOUGHT I had the problem figured out. So I REPLAYED those same 19 songs.....to no avail. And now, my once clean and organized desk, now looks like this.......and I am sick of 19 oldies songs after trying a third time to do this.

I decided to create this post so I could feel I accomplished something today in regards to technology. Although I don't know why the pictures seem so small, but for sanity sake, I will say to protect you from the glaring reality of the how bad the mess actualy was.

So I am calling it a day, well night, and will try again tomorrow. I'm a little closer, I have gotten them to where you can play them off the cd, and you can play ONE of the songs (the first one) in my ITunes directory, but I need to be able to play all of them in my ITunes as well as label them......but that will have to be accomplished on another day!

Mushroom Hunting

2011-04-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

I vaguley remember the time my parents took ME mushroom hunting, while I do enjoy mother nature, I am not one to stay in the actual woods long. Call it a fear of bugs, mice and snakes, I'm not sure. However, my son Frankie LOVES all things naturey (no not a dictionary word, but more of a TOTH word). So I had called my Dad and asked if he was going mushroom hunting this year. He wasn't sure, as in the past few years he had not found very many and was very discouraged. Well I was bummed because I knew Frank would LOVE to get to go into "the jungle" (what he used to call the woods when he was little) and spend the day just wandering around.

I had told my friend Barb about this. She goes mushroom hunting every year. She has been on a hot streak! She went out the other day and found over 600 mushrooms! Now I do not enjoy mushrooms, store bought or wild. While some in my house do, they do not care for the Morells so I did not know much about hunting for them. What I learned is, over 600 is a HUGE amount, that usually is a total for like a whole season! She said she wished she had Frankie with her cuz she thought he would really enjoy it! She decided to go again the next day and offered to take him! I was soooo excited for him! At first, he said he did not want to go if I did not go, but we discussed it and he finally got so excited to go, he decided he would be fine. He informed me the next day he had a dream that Barb was trying to kill him in the woods and he had to find a deer to jump on and get away, but that he knew that would NEVER really happen! lol The next day, they originally were going to go back to the same place and I was going to take Frankie there, but then Barb called and said they decided to go some place else, and had me drop him off at her mom's house.

O.K., I'm going to be completely honest, no matter the ridicule, because they were no longer going to be right near our house, I will now (after the fact) admit, to being a little nervous. I totally trust Barb with him, but it was supposed to rain, and I kept picturing him getting hit by lighteing! O.K. ,laugh all you want, but this is how my warped brain works. HOWEVER Frankie was a little nervous too, (he had the stomach squrmies) so I played it cool. He asked me "now how long have you known Barb?" I told him atleast 5-6 yrs, he said, "it took you 12 years before you trusted Dad to take me somewhere!" lol, ok, well he was younger then.....and besides, I am working on cutting those strings, AND I DID let him go and told him I was fine with it EVEN though I had "squirmies" in my stomach also as I drove away. Ofcourse I also was driving on a side of town I was not familiar with, so it could have been that as well! lol

O.K., back to the mushroom hunting. I thought about calling about 15 mins into it, but decided I would not be that kind of parent. I also thought about sending a camera and saying please take a picture of his first mushroom hunting trip, but again, didn't want to be that parent either. Luckily Barb knows me well enough, that she took pictures with her camera without me even haing to ask! She also let him call me (again, this is why I love Barb, she knows and accepts my quirks and works with them, OTHERS could take note! lol ) about 15 mins into the hunting! lol They had found a bunch already and he was having a WONDERFUL time. Well that news finally let the squirmies go away and I was able to calm down. He also called me a couple more times, much to my heart's joy! lol

They ended up finding over 700 mushrooms! She let Frankie keep the ones he found (3 3/4 pounds, and since we don't like them, he was able to sell them (@ $20 a pound) (Grandad sold 2 bags for him at work) which he was able to add to the $ they are saving up to go to South Carolina. So overall he had a Great Day, and wonderful memories were made. Barb was able to tell me lots of funny Frankie stories, that I will not embarass him with by puting on here but you can bet I WILL be putting them in his memory box! lol

Autism Awareness

2011-04-06T12:26:00.000-07:00

So, Frankie's teacher from school last year, asked if he would be willing and come talk to her class this month since April is Autism Awareness month. He worked and worked on what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it. I did help him fine tune a few minor details and change some of the "scientific facts into language the kids would understand, but the rest is all him in his Frankie style. I hope anyone reading this enjoys it as much as I did.

The Facts about Autism

By Frankie Toth

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports approximately 9 kids out of every 1,000 children in the United States are diagnosed with ASD. The number of people diagnosed with autism has increased dramatically since the 1980s, partly due to changes in how they diagnose Autism; the question of whether there are more people becoming Autistic or if they just have gotten better at recognizing it is still not sure.

A lot of people don’t know much about Autism. You might think, “it’s just a disorder of the brain that makes kids weird, right?” Well no, there’s more to it. See, Autism is a disorder of neural development, which means it’s a disorder of the nervous system and some parts of the brain. This can lead to impaired social interaction (when someone may behave different than most kids) and impaired communication (when someone talks different or communicates different). It also causes restricted and repetitive behavior, like playing the same game over and over or watching the same show over and over. For instance, I used to growl when I got mad instead of yelling. I used to smack my ears over and over when I was upset. Now you might think this sounds weird and is funny, but some people really have these problems. It’s not a laughing matter. Autism also alters how the nerve cells connect and organize, so in certain situations, they might freak out, and start yelling and pacing or rocking back and forth. And here’s one thing some people never expected. There’s more than one type of autism! Classical autism, Asperger syndrome, Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS), (also the type I have), Rett syndrome, and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder.

Someone with Autism may not understand a joke you told, or understand if someone tries to change the subject. They may not handle a change in schedule well, and there for you may see them get very upset if there is an unexpected change in the daily routine. They might be obsessed with an object, like a train or something as simple as a pencil sharpener. They may notice little things that other kids do not see, due to their intense focus on things.

A lot of people with this disorder are able to do a lot of “normal” things, but are different in other things that may seem “weird or strange” to everyone else. Some may be extremely smart, but have trouble understanding social rules such as personal space. So they may stand really close to you or do not want you very close to them. They may say something that seems really rude, but do not understand that they should not have said that. I personally had a hard time controlling my emotions, and would get extremely upset over things someone else might be able to blow off, or forget about. I would cry and then be embarrassed for crying, but could not control it.

Another myth about Autism is they get it when they’re born. Not so. It develops gradually, and the first signs can be found during the first three years of life. In my case, my parents noticed I was not talking when I should have been. When I did talk, I was only repeating things I had heard on TV. Such as if I was asked if I liked something, I might have replied “good morning sun”.

At this time, there is no cure. There are ways to cope with it, and to help Autistic people learn how to live WITH it. It also helps to bring awareness to others, so they can understand. Most people also don’t have faith in others with autism, believing that they won’t be successful in life. But people with my condition, or anyone who has one of the ASD, can be successful. Some seek for a cure, while others accept it as a part of who they are.

Also, everyone with autism could, or less likely could not, have SID or Sensory Integration Disorder. SID is a disorder that gives the brain inability to organize some sensory information. One effect SID has is that you can’t screen out nonessential information, like a distant airplane or heater. For example, you probably don’t notice a fan running, but I would. You might not be able to hear you fridge running, but I could. I like to think of it as having super senses, in my part hearing. One example of SID is that someone, a little girl for instance, could hear someone unwrap and eat a candy bar in the room next door, but can’t hear someone call her name in the same room. SID also could make oneself lack flexibility, be explosive, and be difficult with translation. Now, all or most of these syndromes could mean you have SID, but just a few of them could mean something else entirely different.

For me, Autism has been both a blessing and a curse. See, people treat me like any other kid, and that includes teasing and bullying. I look like any other normal kid, and that’s what makes autism a very dangerous thing. Others with some different disability, like Down syndrome, look different than others, and people know that they have to treat them differently. We autistics blend in so well, you could be sitting by someone with autism, and not know it. We taste, feel, see, and hear differently than other people. I don’t like some foods like potato salad because of its texture and taste. I growl like a dog because it’s my emotional reaction to some things, like frustration and annoyance. Some people think we’re freaks because of this, but we’re not really. Like wolves and hyenas, people with autism are just misunderstood. I know Rosa Parks says its bully proof, but it isn’t. People made fun of me, and others just because of what we did. This is why we must be careful about what we say to others. I knew someone who used to go here. He acted what we would call weird, and most people stayed away from him, including me. We would groan when he was our partner, and rejoice when he wasn’t. I didn’t know how sorry I would be until it was too late. I thought I was the one who had it bad, but who knows what he had to go through. He might cry at home because nobody wanted to sit by him, or because people treat him poorly. These things can lead to dire consequences, like depressions or suicide. You might think I’m stretching it a little, but it’s true. That poor boy’s case proves how people can mistreat autistics. I don’t know whether he was autistic, normal, or if he has an entirely different disorder, but still, he is a human being. We should be nicer to others, autistic or not, because you won’t know the consequences, like emotional scars or worse, until it’s too late.

Now, look at yourselves and each other. Now look at me. We are all so complex organisms’ right? I presume everyone knows something about evolution, and how we evolved from monkeys. I don’t believe that, and maybe by the time I’m done you won’t either. I mean, how could evolution make a human with perfectly functioning organs, a very complex language system, and cities with skyscrapers so large they tower over everything else in the area? The answer is simple: God. God also made your parents, which in term made you, and He also make autism and the other ADSs. He made everything, and only an organized and creative Creator could make everything around us. If evolutionists were right, we could all be dead. Why; because what makes evolution work is one genetic mistake after another. They believe nature makes mistake after mistake after mistake, until she gets on right and moves along. Well a whole species could go extinct by the time nature “gets it right”. Evolution is nothing more than taking God out of the picture. It is true that animals adapt, but every animal that has a genetic disorder would die without human help. We humans are the only creatures on this earth that can survive with a “mistake”. Remember what I said about some people looking for a cure, and others accepting it? I believe they who accept autism are right. Autism is a quality that God gives you, and we should accept it until we find a cure. I believe with all my heart that autism is a blessing from God that makes us different. It can be useless one way, but valuable in another way. God has a reason for everything, and He knows what He’s doing. Any questions?

Health Kick

2011-03-22T11:29:00.000-07:00

Well, the time has come to face the facts. We (as a whole family) need to crack down and get serious about getting healthy. I used to be afraid of healthy cooking, I had tried the low fat/no fat, I have tried the low/no carb thing,weight watchers, atkins etc... none of it appealing. I also did not care for the lean cusine etc... meals, they seriously lacked taste. So I was hesitant to try new "healthy" meals. I had tried regular new meals that weren't always so healthy, but something different, but my family members are hard to please. However, as I watched us all pack on the pounds, I knew SOMETHING had to be done. So I once more vowed to make this family healthy. But I was going to try a new approach, one I had never done. I was going to mix and match healthy programs. a little from this program and a little from that. Several of my friends and some of my family are doing weight watchers. Another friend had done the caveman diet, where if a caveman wouldn't recognize it, you don't eat it. I think that has also been called the God diet, where you eat things as God made them, and God didn't make processed food. But I also knew, if I didn't ease the family into this, it was never going to work. I had my work cut out for me, but as the "keeper of the home" it was my responsibility to "git r done"!

The past week and a half, I have been trying to fix healthy meals. It started with my bi-weekly grocery trip. Not buying anything bad. I had bought some 100 calorie packs to help ween us of the junk we were so used to eating. I added more veggies and fruit to some meals. One of my close friends had told me, "don't focus on what you CAN'T have, but what you GET to have". I had gotten a weight watchers cook book at the library and had incorporated some of those meals into our weekly menus. Suprisingly. so far, they have all gone over well. Gracie and I had gone to my mom's for dinner one night and she made a weight watcher friendly spaghetti sauce and we fixed spaghetti squash in the oven and put the sauce over that and it actually tasted just like spaghetti. That motivated me on the other meals I was going to fix. So far we have had 2 weekends and a full week and a half (yes, i'm still counting the days so far). We started adding excersise into the mix last Friday. Thankfully my mom has her own littl mini gym in her upstairs and we have become members over there. We also have mixed it up a bit, and went bike riding and walking over there yesterday as the weather was so nice. today, we went to a local nature park and walked the trails. The kids are motivated, and I am feeling more confident in the food I am preparing. I have substituted raw veggies where I might have served chips or fries before, I am trying to vary the cooked veggies where I mostly made mashed potatoes in the past. While I have made some of the weight watcher meals, I have also kept some of our old ones, such as hamburgers, or chicken nuggets, but I measure out portion sizes and have fruit and veggies to go with them. In doing this, the family (me included) do not feel the weight (no pun intended) of a "diet" rather the excitement of a healthy change. I used to make a large pitcher (sometimes two) of sweet tea every weekend, and we would get that on our many eating out trips. Well, I have not made that tea the last two weekends and we haven't ate out, except once this whole time, so we have lowered our liquid calories considerably not to mention saving a bunch of $. We also are working hard at eating at the table rather than on the couch or in our rooms. I think that the hardest change to make of them all!

We did have a cheat day, and we have allowed ourselves small treats when we have had an overwhelming craving that just will not go away. But again, we portion it out and actually after that, it goes away. Example, my husband brought home our most favorite doughnuts just a few days after starting this. Why? you might ask, because in the past, we have made food our way of doing something nice for each other and he was trying to be nice (it takes time to change our habits). So I immediately asked he take them to the basement and not even let Gracie know, Frankie was there, he saw them, no getting around that, but he was only allowed one. I did not feel an immediate urge for one and thought, heh, I can handle this. But later that night, it kept popping in my head, and would not go away, I started eating this and that, to get my mind off those wonderful doughnuts downstairs. By the next morning, I caved and went down and had one....just one, I ate it slowly and enjoyed every bite and guess what, after that, I did not crave one again for a couple days. and by then, he had finished off the box so it didn't matter and I have been fine ever since. I even found, when going to the store yesterday to get more fresh produce, while Frankie was drooling over the things in the bakery right next to the produce section, I was not.....for now anyway! lol

Anyway, to sum it all up, so far, we have succeeded, in my opinion, in getting off to a good start. We are trying and liking new fruit and veggies and are starting to change our thoughts on what to do with our spare time and how to MAKE time to work in our daily excersise. I KNOW we will make mistakes in the future, but we have a pretty good start. I think Frankie summed it up the other day when he said, "you know, I dreaded this eating better and exercise stuff, but with us ALL doing it as a family, I actually find myself excited about it". I am too. I just pray that we can continue in doing this well. Keeping God in it, I think will be a huge factor, and with His help, as we all know, you can't loose (well, i want to loose, just not fail! lol). But knowing I am and CAN do this for my family, makes me a happy camper.

On a final note, I have to say, along with God, I could not have had the motivation nor so much knowledge or access to success, without my mom. She has had her own good start and has encouraged, supported and helped guide me through he whole thing. It just goes to proove, a mother's job is never done! We love her dearly!

Ice Storm Positives

2011-02-04T15:49:00.000-08:00

We started Thursday planning for the kids to do a full day of homeschool, but then Chris needed me to help him with the cars outside. Well he thought we would need the kids help, so they came out. We decided to let the defrost in the car run instead of chancing busting our windshields by pounding on it, but we didn't want to go back in the house with the cars running. Not for fear of someone stealing them, cuz, well, you couldn't get the cars out of the driveway due to the ice, but incase the engine quit or something. While we waited, we noticed how slick the pathway to the parking lot next door was. I aslo remembered the kids sled sitting out on the back porch.....well, even though i am not good at math, i do know that 1+1= ALOT of fun! So we turned having a ton of ice everywhere into a wonderful fun day, full of memories. Some friends came over, and even the youth pastor working at the church next door had to give it a whirl! We figured school can be done any day, it's not everyday you have an iceskating rink in your front yard!

Winter Wonderland

2011-02-02T07:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we got the second ice storm in 2 days. Today it's snowing a little bit. God is so good to give us a change and variety in weather. I am also thankful he gave us power as the lights just flickered a bit last night and that was it.

This is a tree in the front yard, whose branches are almost touching the ground.

This is the side of the front yard, as you can see, ice has attatched itself to everything!

You can see the church parking lot next door is a perfect sheet of ice. I think the kids could play hockey out there....if the knew how to play hockey.....or to ice skate.....

The biggest tree in the yard, that luckily is not close enough to the house to have to worry about falling branches

The American Flag, still waving, though barely due to being coated in ice. Chris later took it down, so it wouldn't bend the pole....

I should have taken the baskets down in the fall, but I didn't. But look at the ice on the chains....This is the backyard btw....and yes our back porch is that close to the front steps of the church next door.

Love the icicles and all the ice in our neighbors trees, i think it's so pretty!

The power lines were hanging pretty low yesterday, the ice must have melted a bit today though as they are not quite as low today....

As much as I love the variety and scenic views, I am ready Dear Lord, for some spring like weather.....

A little of this and that

2011-01-31T22:06:00.000-08:00

I am determined to get this family on a schedule. Today, was one of the first days we got close to the schedule i made up and posted on the wall. I still have yet to get up before 9AM because my body just refuses to go to sleep at a decent hour, even if i am so super tired......AND i have yet to get us on a daily excersise routine, but i am hoping that will come with time.....

Hunter got a new sweater. He actually does not seem to mind the old light green one, i think it was broke in enough for his liking, however this new one is taking some getting used to. But as long as he walks around the house shivering like he's one of those little chihuahua dogs, he's either going to have to man up or wear a sweater. i do think it is effecting how much the squirels are afraid of him though. the other day he ran out there to chase one in his old green sweater and i am not even lying when i tell you, the squirell ran half way up the tree, stopped headed back down a few inches and the two of them just stared at each other for awhile. i think he could not believe this dog was going to try to act fierce with him while wearing a pale green sweater......

he just needs a pipe to go with the sweater in this pic! lol

Gracie is back to homeschooling. She was at public school for 2 weeks. She had multiple bloody noses, stomach aches, migraines and hot flashes the whole time. As soon as we brought her back to homeschooling, she has not had a single episode. We had taken her to the Dr. and he ran some tests and found nothing wrong and said he does truly believe it was the stress of being back at public school. We have her all set up in the living room again, and now i am trying to spend my days out there with her to keep her on track and be there if and when she needs anything.

We are supposed to have an ice/freezing rain storm for the next couple of days. i have not figured out how a storm coming from the southwest is freezing over only the east facing windows in my house.....oh well....

I have been using handerchiefs that were my grandmothers. After going from having to buy several boxes of Kleenex a month to being able to just buy a few every other month, i concluded that I was the one using up the majority of the tissues, and since switching to these, i have saved money and probably a few trees a year, so that the stuff in the hankies aren't the only thing green around here! lol So anyway, the ones i was using were, well....old, so they were tearing and wearing out. I decided to make some new ones, but instead of your typical, plain jane white, i decided to find some cute material, learn how to use the rolling hem foot on my sewing machine and on a few added some binding or rickrack and voila! i think they are so cute i may try to sell a couple on Etsy!

While i got alot of handerchiefs done, i still have a couple more to go as well as some curtains for Gracie's room (hence the peace sign material) and some for my craft room. note the adorable material on the chair, the "McCall's pattern" fabric will be the panels and the other will be the vallence for the craft room! so excited to get those done and hung up!

Back to Public School

2011-01-12T16:49:00.000-08:00

So this past monday, gracie headed back to public school. She even rode the bus to and from, starting tuesday. Years past i have let them start the year on the bus but get to the point where i ended up taking them and picking them up. but this year, with not having to worry about frankie, we were determined to keep her on the bus. here is a synopsis of the week so far........

Monday, got there early, she was so happy and excited and even a little nervous. she was greated warmly by staff and students. i walked her to her class and met her new teacher, and grace did not want me to leave, but i told her she would be fine and she was. i worried about her all day! was this the right decision, was she going to be disappointed, what kind of day was she going have, what kind of struggles getting back in the routine would she have..... Picked her up, she was talking a mile a minute and so happy! YEA! she had a great day!

Tuesday, she rode the bus there. because of snow, they were going to dismiss an hour early. she called from school asking if i was picking her up. i said no, but that i needed to give her the other bus number (different bus in the afternoon than morning) for the afternoon. she reallllly wanted me to pick her up, but i reminded her, this was part of the deal of her going back to school. she gets home like an hour after school got out. she was madder than a wet hornet! she complained about this and that. she really hated the afternoon bus. the driver waited for every kid to get in their house, i explained that was a good thing since they had early dismissal, they had assigned seats, she was sitting by....(gasp) a boy! and there were boys all around her, her bus driver was a boy, and she was the last girl off the bus! the boys were loud and annoying, she did NOT want to ride the afternoon bus! which had me worried, and thinking, maybe i would need to cave and pick her up. her morning bus driver was a man too, but she was ok with him because he always (this was the first day, but nevertheless) said good morning to her.....yadda yadda, i thought well, we'll see how the rest of the week goes.

Wednesday (today), she was over an hour getting home again. i was about to call the bus barn, but then, here she came. i was on pins and needles waiting for her to be mad again. she got of the bus and started running to the house (was that good or bad?) as she came up the walkway, she was smiling...that's a good sign, right? she came in the house, she was perky, happy, and talking a mile a minute again! she had a GREAT day! turned out the "boy" she had to sit next to was actually a GIRL! (now she's only been out of public school like 5 months, how does she not know the difference! lol ) AND she and this girl evidently had a wonderful gab fest on the bus ride home. AND the bus driver wants to be an engineer and has been driving a bus for a little over a year, and he's not old, he's like "the same age as you mom" (well atleast i know i am not old her eyes! lol) she evidently had a wonderful gabfest with the busdriver as well! so now the world is great, she is happy and in a good mood except for a bit of a headache...... as the night goes on, the headache grows and she is feeling quite warm, the light hurts her eyes and her throat is very red, and she has asked for the puke bowl......so it looks like it took officially 3 days of public school to get sick! :-) can't wait to see what the rest of this week and next week brings!

didn't mean to burst your bubble

2011-01-06T16:42:00.000-08:00

so in the kids stockings this year, they got some SERIOUS bubble gum. the rest of the year they get sugar free, but at christmas, they get the good stuff, the stuff that can make some serious bubbles, the stuff that you get so addicted to chewing and blowing, you end up with a headache from chewing so much..... well frankie, my brilliant son, whom i love dearly, had one realllllly big bubble.....but .....it popped! at first he would not let me take a picutre of the result, but eventually if i let him blow a new bubble he would let me ......

now my son is allergic to peanutbutter, so there was no using that to get it out. i later learned you can try mayonaise, however luckily it was thin enough, i was able to just scrape it out of his hair! oh my! that kid. he then made me promise not to post on facebook, however he never said anything about my blog......

Oh What A Day!!!

2011-01-05T20:30:00.000-08:00

Well, the day actually started from yesterday. We had a couple of mice in the house as you recall. especially in the pantry / 1/2 bath. Well Chris had put down some rat poison in areas our little dog Hunter Beans, couldn't reach, except when it came to the half bath. However we had told the kids to keep that door closed so he couldn't get in there.

well chris went in there later last night and there were little blue pellets scattered on the floor. my first thought was that he had kicked them without realizing it when he reached for some cleaners on the top shelf. we were sure of it. hunter was acting fine!! called poison control, they wanted us to give him peroxide and and water and take him for a walk and jiggle his tummy to get him to puke. i hated to induce vomiting if he didn't actually eat them, and there were no signs he did.

frankie was very upset, gracie was a little but i think she was like us, and assumed he had not actually ate them. i told the kids we'll keep an eye on him and watch his stool, for the next few days. well, thank goodness this morning, frankie remembered those words, he saw hunter "go" outside and went out to check it out and it was a turquoise in color, well you can see the color of the pellets, so i totally was freaking out!!! he HAD ate some!!! i was trying not to totally freak on the outside cuz i did not want the kids upset. i think they sensed ME freaked out and they were trying to stay positive, talk about God giving you what you need when you need it!!!

we called the vet and they said we needed to get him in right away and he would have to stay there for awhile. i love my dog almost as much as my kids, but i have to admit to worrying how much this was going to cost, i knew i would spend whatever to save him, but cringed at how much "whatever" was going to be.

we had already planned to go to the library this morning and i decided it would not do any of us good to sit at home worrying so we would drop hunter off and go ahead to the library, two different ones in fact.

long (yes it could be longer) story short, once at the vet he was able to start on vitamin K and they checked his blood etc... and he is going to be ok and we will never use "poison" in this house again!!! AND thank you Jesus the cost of the vet trip was not even as close to the exhorbant amount we thought it was going to be!

and hunter beans will make a full recovery, and was able to come home today, which is good because otherwise i would have to either have him stuffed or creamated cuz i was not ready to part with him!!!

Also while at the library, i recieved a phone call from the kids old school principal. while on the phone chris joked and asked if she was ready to get gracie back, and he she said actually there was an opening! for those who do not know, because the kids went to an edison school, there is usually a pretty long waiting list to go there and when we took her out, we did not expect to be able to get her back in if it did not work out. while frankie has excelled and flourished at homeschooling, gracie has struggled with keeping on task and missing the socializing with her friends. we were not sure what we were going to do. so this happening out of nowhere, seemed to be God handing us an answer. we discussed it at length and finally decided to let her head back. she starts monday and she is sooo excited. i am happy for her, i truly am, but i am NOT pleased to now have to get up while it is still dark out to get her ready and on the bus!!! oh the sacrifices we make for our children! lol but to see her smile, makes me smile and hopefully we can get some attention issues resolved now.
***also got word today, that frankie's piano teacher is willing to take gracie on for piano lessons.

another "hurray" moment in gracie's day!!

Finally, the day of good news had to be spoiled. i do not understand why some people who do not even know you will say nasty things to you on facebook. i suggested to a friend who had asked for ideas to reward her daughter for good grades, that IF she was a reader, she could get a new book for every A. This man (who obviously does not like to read) thought it was a terrible idea, and he was glad i was not his mom, and went on to explain in a later "comment" that rather than be in the same room with me and my books, he would rather stab himself in the pancreas and do other bodily harm to himself. A) since when does it make you a bad mom to encourage your kids to read, and B) i told him if he were to do that kind of bodily harm, i hoped the doctors at the hospital he got taken to, certainly liked to read......

Fifties fascination

2010-12-28T20:18:00.000-08:00

It all started when I was at Half Price Books and found the Retro Housewife book. I fell in love with the "retro" books and now I can't get enough of them. I wish I WAS a 50's housewife! I wish I had the figure of a 50's housewife!!! Or atleast the image they use! hee hee But I do think things were alot better in alot of ways back then. Maybe that's why I am so fascinated with it. I do not limit my love of past housewives to the 1950's though. I am seriously interested in the 1940's housewives and how they dealt with the war on the homefront, rationing etc... and the 1930's housewives and how they dealt with the Depression era, which spawned my favorite expression "Use it up, Wear it out, Make do, or Do with out!" I keep hoping they will come out with more books of the other era housewives like they have these. If you know of any, let ME know! Until then, I will keep browsing through my retro books to get inspired to clean and cook and live life a little more simply.

Preparing for Christmas part 3

2010-12-19T22:32:00.001-08:00

Decorating......

These are our stockings. All the top ones my husband's grandmother, who was in her 90's at the time, hand made! we love and cherrish those. the ones underneath are for our dog and chris' two cats.

My father in law painted the below ceramics.....

In fact, my father in law painted most of the ceramics we have! He was very talented.

Last year I decided to start collecting a new Christmas waterglobe each year. We have plenty of ornaments, and I LOVE snowglobes, so therefor, I am happy to have an excuse to start collecting them.

My friend Jenifer gave me my countdown calendar! It has become a favorite tradition each year. The kids LOVE counting down to Christmas by moving each piece "onto" the picture as each day goes by.

So excited about my village this year. Some of it was handed down to me from my mom, two pieces were bought on clearance last year and a large bulk of it was bought for a steal at a garge sale this past summer!

The below picture, the kids made for us one year and I absolutely love it! In case you can't see it, it is from "the painter elves"! I hang it back up each year. Love Love Love, my snowman under my clock as well! ;-)

On into my kitchen, this is the first year i put garland ontop of my kitchen pantry, i really like it!

It's very hard to see in the picture but there are lights in the greenery above the cabnets and it is sooo pretty at night!

Yahoo!

Preparing for Christmas part 2

2010-12-17T14:52:00.001-08:00

We finally got the Christmas card picture taken. Last year, I just had them jump in front of the tree and got it taken in 5 minutes. I knew it was going to be in black and white so I wasn’t worried. It was wonderful!! So my hopes were high this year to have the same experience vs the no one cooperates and I get mad and they get upset and Gracie has red eyes from crying etc….

Well it only took approximately 5 minutes again, but it was not the best 5 minutes! So this is the best we got. It was actually more of Hunter not cooperating, but the kids insisted he be in it, so I was trying to get him to cooperate but the kids couldn’t leave him alone…..long story short, next year there will be a picture of the kids with a separate one of the dog on the card, not together! lol

As if things weren’t crazy enough, as I sat on the floor putting groceries away the other night and talking to Chris in the kitchen, out of the corner of my eye I see something moving by the back door, then I watch the stupid mouse run behind my stove! blehehehehech!! EVERY YEAR! well then I noticed mouse “presents” on the boxes of jello in the half bath pantry. (we have a small pantry in the kitchen and then we turned the half bath in to a pantry as well). Well I decided I needed to take everything off the shelves in there and scrub it all down before I would put any new groceries in there. Chris was so nice and helped me get it all done. I would have been up all night and totally stressed out if he had not helped. I so appreciated it. We ended up putting the jello and stuff in plastic bins and moved all the box foods and plastic bagged foods into the kitchen pantry where the mice could not get it and moved a bunch of canned foods and glass jar foods into the other pantry. we did discover though, that mice like chocolate as much as human. The stupid things had chewed on the end of a brand new, unopened bag of chocolate chips, when that wasn’t working for them, they went right for the middle of the bag and found the pay load! Now the bathroom pantry looks like this…..

and the kitchen pantry looks like this……

Also while shopping at Michaels craft store, I found these adorable Christmas bags for those weird shaped presents! I LOVE them!! They were only $2.99!!

Finally, this year I decided instead of baking plates of cookies for friends, I decided to bake some breads. It was much easier!! HOWEVER for some reason, a lot of them kept caving in, in the middle. I have yet to figure out why! It was so frustrating!!! So I may go back to cookies next year unless I can figure out why it does this!! !

Yahoo!

preparing for christmas part 1

2010-12-13T10:04:00.001-08:00

I love MOST of the things we do leading up to Christmas. We have started to make certain craft projects "traditions" while others are fun to do one year and try something new the next. One of my most favorite things we did when the kids were little, was to make a "handmade" tree and ornaments. I cut a tree out of green poster board, and pulled out the craft box and we all went crazy glueing, glittering, drawing etc.... i saved that tree and hang it up every year.....

Last year we made gingerbread houses for the first time. The kids really enjoyed it and I discovered it wasn't too bad of a mess. So that has become a tradition now. Only this year Frankie wanted to try the gingerbread men instead. I think the fact they were edible made the decision for him! lol

I don't know why we always forget the house has to "sit and dry" for awhile before you can start to decorate it. It must be the same as how you forget how bad childbirth is, after having the baby since your so happy, well we love how the house turns out so i think we always forget about the drying! lol

But Frankie, he got to get right to work on his, with a little "advice" (aka, bossy) from his sister....

a little while into it and Gracie got some relief help from her daddy.....

Frankie certainly doesn't let us down on his.....well, his....ummm.....INTERESTING artistic abilities!

Gracie always comes up with some very creative ideas. This is definetly her element. She made a "melted" snowman, and even made "tracks" in the snow, where people would have walked! LOVED IT!!!

Even though we have our holiday fun, we still have school to do. However i decided they can have the week after Christmas off, but they don't get the usual 2 weeks off others do. Now before you feel too bad for them, you should know, they get a day here a day there off during the rest of the year that other kids don't.

Our next project we did last year, we decided to also make a tradition. Last year we painted ceramic ornaments. This year, I couldn't find the ornaments, all the stores were sold out before the first weekend in December. So I got some other ceramic "things" for us to paint. I have to say, their skills have improved from last year. I am looking forward to seeing their control over the paintbrushes grow each year....

It was a perfect day for this craft, it was blowing snow outside and we had Christmas music on, it was such a perfect atmosphere! Hunter Beans, he thought the couch and a blanket was a much better atmosphere!

As with the gingerbread decorating, Gracie has found her area of talents and Frankie, I love how happy he is with however his turns out! He laughs and tells me how wonderful he thinks it looks!! LOVE IT!!! AND LOVE THEM!!!

Yahoo!

a little background

2010-12-06T20:26:00.000-08:00

So, Frankie came in holding this ceramic totum pole thing my in-laws had painted and we "inherited". He loves to create stories, so i thought nothing of it when he goes into this little story of how the animals were having an identity crisis, one thought he was a bear, the other thought he was a different animal.....etc..... he tells me this story for a minute or two, then as he finishes he says hesitantly.......

"well, they cracked up"..... and showed me how it was now broke in two pieces ........

i didn't even try to hide my smile at his creative confession. it made me laugh, plus i confessed to him that i had knocked it off the table the day before and probably cracked it and when he knocked it over, it just finished the job! lol, oh well, nothing a few minutes and a little super glue couldn't fix. now we have given the reindeer a little therapy and they are back to normal, sitting back on the table......and to all a good night.

Parental Discretion Is Advised!

2010-11-07T20:15:00.000-08:00

a quick little funny. we were sitting in church today, listening to another great sermon from pastor felber. frankie, who has decided since he is going to try to be a better christian, and needs to be listening to the sermons, sat there, Bible opened and listened well he did! now first i must give you the information, that after the singing, the kids up to 3rd grade head out to children's church. now, that said, pastor's sermon was on Jude 5-7. he was discussing fornication and what exactly that meant, for instance if you have sex before marriage, or committ adultry, etc.... but he used the word sex alot, because....well,..... how else do you describe fornication. now gracie was sitting between me and frank, so he leaned way over with wide eyes and said "i guess this is why they send the 3 and 5 yrs olds out!!! hahahahaha! he couldn't believe pastor was talking about SEX! hahaha, i still think that is hilarious!!! but he got the message! hahahahaha!

A Reveloutionary Santa Claus and Carry On Ashes

2010-11-07T05:47:00.001-08:00

so this was the year we told the kids about Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy etc..... well the other day, frankie and i were sitting and talking about things. we got on the topic of what we would want in a new house. one of the things i listed was a fireplace. he said well we used to have one and you sold it. i said, no i want a real fireplace where you can burn real wood. he said, well you would have to have a chimney for that....yes i know......then santa would finally have a place to come down.......oh are we going to revert back to believing in santa again? he laughed and said, i have be revelutionized by santa this year, i no longer have to worry about coal in my stocking or birds watching me!!! **** we used to tell them the birds would watch them and report back to santa!

Also a funny this week, and those of you who believe i need to cut the apron strings will appreciate this one! chris and i were talking in the car (we do alot of talking in our family! lol) and he was saying that frankie said if chris was burried in ohio (where he is from) and i was burried in illinois or indiana (where i am from) then we would be too far apart. i said well the kids don't have to worry about that cuz i want to be creamated. that way the kids wouldn't have to worry about coming to a cemetary to visit especially if they moved out of town. chris started laughing and said, even in death i couldn't cut the apron strings! that poor frankie, would have to pay an extra $25 when he flew somewhere to be able to check his mom's ashes so he could take me with him everywhere! i never thought about that but what a good idea!!! hahaha! just kidding! so later we were tellling the kids this and chris was like you get one bag and one personal item free but you have to pay for anything more, i said , well i, ofcourse, would be the personal item he would keep with him........you know what my darling, sweet little child that i gave a painful birth to said next......ya, i will let gracie have all your ashes cuz she won't leave the country.......are you kidding me, this kid turns 12 and HE is starting to cut HIS end of those apron strings!!! lol

Mama in the kitchen!

2010-11-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

ok, so i try to have a rule, that no one comes into the kitchen while i'm cooking. it's too small and i distract easily. well today was no exception. i was trying two different recipes for oatmeal cookies. the first batch came out great. the next batch, i was short 2 egss, so i had to run to the store. it was lunch time so i also had to stop so we could eat lunch, make the chilli for supper and THEN get back to it. in the mean time the whole family kept coming and going, asking and hanging out. finally i get the cookies on the tray and stick them in the oven.....melted like butter, flattened out and over the edge, so i had the wonderful burning smell.....not to mention being annoyed they did not work. i tried one more tray, and again....spread like melted butter! oh i was so mad! i was ready to go online and write a "this recipe stinks!" comment on the recipe (got it off taste of home website), chris comes in as i am scraping the mess off the second tray before it hardens and sees i am upset. he asks why they turned out like that.....ok for future reference, not the question to ask an angry woman. i threw my hands in the air and said, "i don't know, i followed the stupid recipe! i don't know what the problem is!" so he starts going down the list, and i am remembering putting everything........wait, flour? surely i put the flour in........nope, guess i didn't......cringe! so ladies let me tell you what happens when you get so distracted you forget flour....... so i added flour to the remaining dough, and wouldn't you know it! they stayed put!!! waiting for them to finish baking so i can taste them. sure hope they are good enough to be worth all this!!!

This Week-End In Words and A Few Pictures

2010-11-02T22:20:00.000-07:00

Well the weekend did NOT get off to a good start.....Chris was on his company conference call when a big wig out of nowhere announced they were going to phase out chris' dept by the end of next year! WHAT?!!! this is sooo not supposed to happen! all those long nights of him working, going out of town, eating crow.......for what? ....so his dept can be phased out!!!! well we immediately start planning, thinking, well atleast we have more time to prepare than most. we made plans on how we could save money, but acknowledged the money needing to be spent on further education, him to learn a new software to become more marketable to both his company and any others he may have to apply to. i decided to ask a friend (who has been laid off) if i can hire her to teach me more advanced sewing so i can take in more sewing on the side and bring in a little bit extra but still stay home and homeschool (not that i could get a job out there right now anyway). we also explained to the kids what was going on in hopes to get better cooperation with them, about all the ways we can cut back on utilities to save money. well i will fast forward to monday for the sake of closing out this part of the weekend. chris met with his boss over coffee and was told he knew too much for the company to loose and that they are hoping to develop a different dept that he will likely be asked to head up......great news.....IF it's true. for some reason i don't totally trust a company that will spring something like this on their employees with no warning.....call me a skeptic.....but for now, we have a little rainbow going , just not sure what's at the end of it, real gold or fools gold?! in the meantime we are going to forge ahead with our plans on cutting back and furthering our education!

HALLOWEEN!!! i do enjoy seeing everybody dressed up, i love creative costumes, however, my kids do not appreciate the easy costumes, usually..... this year however, frankie wanted to be a ninja, and gracie a forensic antropologist (basically a lab coat and a necklace with bones on it) so i was so relived! i was able to put my procrastination in full swing. so about a week ago i go to buy frankie's costume....i could find tons of little boy ninja's and tons of grown men ninjas, but NONE his size. i contemplated making it, but as i had waited so long, not to mention the amount of fabric it would take....well i found the smallest men's size (an extra large!) and decided with some safety pins and creative use of those red fabric tyes you put on the arms and waist, we could make it work and best thing, he loved it.

gracie, well tracking down a lab coat was not as easy as i could have hoped. but finally the day before, i was finally able to track one down, well actually 2 cuz i asked 2 friends and they both came through, well, at 3:30 that day, (trick or treating starting at 6) gracie decides with tears in her eyes, this is NOT what she had envisioned.....the guilt of being so pleased at having two such easy costumes set in. along with the guilt of talking her into another easy costume last year of the "junk food junkie" where we taped junk food wrappers onto a pair of sweats and all night long she kept loosing them and being asked what she was supposed to be. needless to say, i felt like the worst mom! so we shot out of there on the quest to find a costume she liked. 3 stores later, she decided on a hippi, which is not my first choice and not quite as hippi like as i would have gone if i had had more time to plan, but she was happy and with her latest fascination with peace signs, i guess appropriate. so i had one happy little girl and boy!

Last year

This year

then today, we were able to take the kids with us to vote. i was super excited about this cuz they always ask us about it every year and this time, we were able to take them, explain each step and show them! how cool is that! i think that has become one of my favorite things about homeschooling, being able to take them and personally show them life experiences and be able to make sure they get the importance of it!

later we took them to get new coats. now after several years of tears and meltdowns, i have finally learned, do not start off at walmart, target, meijer etc..... anymore! they never have one that fits grace but they have plenty that she likes, and so ensues the tears, the self loathing, the frustration etc.... this year, we started at kohl's, found TWO (thank you very much) coats that she loved (she only got one) AND they were half off AND my mom had $20 in Kohl's cash she generously gave us AND if you had a kohl's card (we didn't, but mom did!) you got an additional 15% off! well as we checked out with our awesome finds and two happy kids, chris noticed the cashier forgot to ring up frankie's coat. he said "as much as i would love to pretend i didn't see this, i can't, i have to say i don't think you got one of the coats rung up", the girl was so appreciative of his honesty, she took an additional 30% off! so we got a really good deal and were able to leave with 2 great coats, a great deal and a clear conscience!!!

Jury Duty

2010-10-27T09:39:00.000-07:00

ok, so i have WANTED, yes WANTED to get called for jury duty for some time now. the only summons i ever got was when i was 8 months pregnant with my son and so i could not do it. everyone i know that ever got one hated that they got one. i hated that people that hated to get one always ended up being the ones that got one! (follow that?) i agree with my mom, they should allow you to sign up to be on juries and pull only from them! lol so anyway, the day came, i got my letter! i was so excited. my husband kept making fun of me, even though he knew i WANTED to go. which on a side note, i thought it hysterical when a few weeks later he got his own summons! haha!

so i looked forward to the day i would get to start calling to see if i got picked. i called the night before. my group number was 14, they called for groups 1-12! darn it! then i realized i was on hold the entire week, not being able to plan things "in case" i was called. well that part stunk! so monday night, i called, my group was called! yes!!! however, they were calling for a horrendous rainstorm that next morning. i knew chris was not anxious to drive me down during rush hour to begin with (cuz i do NOT drive downtown, i am way too chicken) but if he had to do it in a rainstorm i was sure he would not be happy. luckily the rain held off until after i was down there.
now i am grateful that he drove me down, however he was ready to drop me off at a big building he THOUGHT was the right one, while it was still dark and me not knowing where anything downtown was! so much for a caring protective husband! lol

ok, fastforward past the nervous the night before, getting up earlier than i have all year blah blah! i go into the building, nervous to even go through the metal detector, was i going to have some item that was totally innocent to me that they would deem terrorist worthy (again see why i don't like to go downtown). where was i to go after i went through the metal detectors? luckily they told me, second floor. i could either take the stairs which i could see or take the elevator, which i had no idea where it was. i took the stairs. fast forward to the assembly room. i sat next to an older lady named judy. we got to talking, i really hoped we would be in the same group. i liked judy alot, judy had the same voters guide in her purse that she got from her church as i did! we got along great!!! judy had been summonsed before but never made it onto a jury. judy told me about how mean they could be to possible jurors who did things like bring their preschoolers with them because their wife had recently died and had no one to watch the kids! if they can be mean to a man like that, what were they going to do to me!? i was begining to see why people didn't want to go to jury duty and i realllly didn't want to loose judy! they had 3 courts needing jurors that day so they seperated us all into 3 groups. judy, was not in my group.

my group finally got called to the court room. 12 of us were called into the juror seats while the rest had to sit out in the audience. we were greeted, very friendly, we were told what the case would be (i was sooo hoping for a good robbery or murder where i would have great satisfaction in saying "GUILTY! and putting them away! Dirty criminals!!!" ) the case was an ex girlfriend that keyed her ex's Ford 150.......can you hear the air come out of my balloon?! "WHY was this even being brought before a JURY!!! why couldn't a single judge resolve this case? judge judy does it alllll the time! but.....it is what it is.....

so they started the voir dire, which basically is them questioning (or drilling, depending on whose doing the describing) of the prospective jurors. now this was the last part i was really nervous about. were they going to discover some deep dark secret about myself that even I didn't know about, by asking me certain questions and tricking me into divulging something super secret? yes i can be a bit dramatic when i envision things. turns out they ask pretty simple questions, but evidently some people also worry they are trying to trick us in those questions and make the answers more complicated than need be! "Mr. Whosit, if i tell you the crime is vandalism of a vehicle, do you need to know when the last time the parking lot was paved?" Mr. Whosit's reply, "well, it depends on what kind of damage was done to the vehicle" "OK. let me put this another way, do you need to know if the car next to it, had grass on it's tires?" Mr. Whosit: "Depends on if the damage could have been caused by the mower kicking rocks up on the vehicle"...... Mr. Whosit was dismissed from being on the jury. so you would think we would all understand the route they were going, they were asking simple questions and wanted simple answers. "Ms. previously served on a jury, would you say the flag behind the judge is an American flag?" Ms. PSJ: " i believe so" "And how do you know it is the American flag?" Ms. PSJ: " because it looks like it is", " and do you need to examine it and count all the stars on it to know it's the American flag?" Ms.PSJ :"yes i would need to count each star and make sure it was".........."Mrs. Toth, do you think that is the American flag?" "yes", "why do you think it is? ", "because we are in america, because this is a courtroom, because it makes sense to be and it appears to be" , " do you need proof that it is the american flag?" "no, i feel sure it is". Mrs. Toth made it on the jury! :-)

quick note here to say, right before we could start, we were moved into a small hallway because we were under a tornado warning, i was so bummed i could not be home watching this awesome storm!!

ok, let me just say, i was sure from the begining this lady probably keyed the truck, i was just waiting for the prosecution (who looked like they just stepped out of high school btw) to wow me with their overwhelming evidence. they had 2 witnesses, the defense had none, the defense was not even going to get on the stand herself. let me tell you, i don't know if this was the prosecution's first case or if this was a "learning courtroom" or what, but they did NOT do a good job. their first witness......not very credible. i think he was confused as to where he even was. at one point, he answered the question "how do you know it was that lady here in the courtroom" (which btw, the second prosecution lawyer had to be reminded to even ask him to point out if the guilty party was in the courtroom) the man replied "cuz she had long hair! she had long hair then and she has long hair now! " that was the only way he could identify her. plus, i am not being ugly or sarcastic when i say, i think he really was very mentally slow and did not understand even simple questions. i have NO idea why he was put on the stand. the 2 witnesses probably lost their case for them cuz they provided us with more inconsistencies and more questions that ultimately gave us more and more reasonable doubt.

fast forward again to the deliberation. we get back in the room. now i took exactly 2 lines of notes, there really wasn't that much to write down, it was a pretty simple case. however Ms. PSJ took 3 long pages of notes. as did some of the other jurors. i really had no idea what you could have written down, but i was soon to find out. we sat down and i said "can i just throw out there, i think there is so much reasonable doubt, i don't think we can find this lady guilty". EVERYONE wholeheartedly agreed.....yet.....we had to spend the next HOUR going over how many feet there actually was from the first witness (who was described above that everyone decided right away was not even credible) and the lady keying the truck, and over every piece of their notes that they took. i guess so they did not feel like they took those notes in vain! all's i could say is, "it's an american flag, can we sign the paper and go home?!" now i would not have been like that if there was anyone who honestly had a question about whether there was enough evidince or not, but we all agreed right away that there was NOT! so whyyyyyy did they want to draw this stupid thing out. it was THEN i realized why no one wants to go on jury duty.....not for the fools they have to sit in judgement on, but rather the fools they have to deliberate WITH!!!

at any rate, i really enjoyed my overall experience, everyone that worked there was super friendly and did everything they could, to make us comfortable and happy (maybe judy never got that far and did not get to experience that part, and i hate that i have to wait 2 yrs before they can call me again!

Hooray For Friend Day!

2010-10-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

My high school bff came to town this week from Arizona! One of my favorite things about this friend is no matter how much time goes by, we can pick up right where we left off! Although our activities now when we hang out, are not as likely to get us arrested, (* see pic circa 1993), it is still just as much fun!!! btw, i am SURE i do not recognize the two crazy girls below!

Our day started off when i picked her up at 10 AM! we headed to the apple orchard cuz she had told me she wanted to go some where we could pick fruit! (once there she informed me, when she got to town her dad had already "picked fruit" (ya he picked her up at the airport! lol j/k tee!) and she didn't really need any more!) however, i did so we asked for some bags, they informed us unfortunetly, they had already been all picked out since 3 weeks ago but there were some for sale there in the store, so part of our day is based on what WOULD have happened! :-)

First up, we (and i mean she) picked our apples (there was a lone apple on the ground)

(if you hold said apple up to the tree, it appears as if she is picking it from the tree!)

Then we decided to take a picture of us together, i needed desperately to find something to hide my lower region behind, and, well, the straw worked (just keeping it real here).

really like these pics of the mums they had for sale. no real story behind these pics but aren't they pretty to look at......

they also demonstrate what good camera she has, so i now know what kind of camera to ask chris for christmas!!! :-)

Loved this little lady!

Ugh! let me tell you, we picked so many apples....(truthfully only 2 bags off the table, but that doesn't make for an interesting story)

Then we decided to have them checked for worms (truthfully, there were some of the sweetest ladies there sorting apples, love this orchard!)

Our final product of all our hard work (truthfully, christi had to ask them to take the paper off the baskets so she could take a picture that would make it look like we picked all these)

Love the decorations in the store, they should sell those too, errr...i mean we then helped to paint all the signs in their store as they recognized us to be very talented ladies right away, really... just from talking to us!!

THEN as if all that picking wasn't enough work, we then canned a bunch of preserves, apple butter, etc..... but gee doesn't my pantry look so nice......(truthfully i don't even know what all is in these jars, we didn't even look, but we had to continue the story)

Next up, i told christi to stand there, what a wonderful pic it would be, she disagreed and felt it would be too dark to see the sign. i as usual, argued my case.....wehehelllll, i think we can see, you CAN see the sign, albeit dark, but really, i feel i was right on this argument (truthfully, she was)

While there, one of the sweet ladies who worked there and is related to the owners told us how they did not like it when kids climbed in the apple trees, however christi, being the rebel she was, decided if you are gonna tell her she CAN'T do something, she will just show you she CAN!!! (personally i think she is taking Obama's "yes we can" a little too far! ) As you can see she climbed anyway.......

Then it was time to leave all our hard work (truthfully swatting away bees from her hot cider was the most work we did! ) and i decided we would have an adventure and turn a different way out of the orchard to see if i could get us to greenwood a little faster. Christi, not having lived here for several years, trusted my directional skills completely! (truthfully, she had to get us back to town after i got us lost) and as one would expect on such an adventure in the country in the fall....the colors were beautiful!

after that wonderfully scenic drive (truthfully, it really was pretty when i wasn't trying to figure out where we were ) we had worked up quite the appetite, so i decided it was time for tee to meet my other friend named MOE!! They are quite welcoming when we go to MOE'S house!

Lastly, to top off the perfect day, we went craft store shopping (truthfully we only hit Hobby Lobby, then we went to Walmart) where christi informed me she was trying to find stuff to wear on her 3 day walk for breast cancer..... i thought these beautiful flowers would be perfect if worn appropriately, you can see christi had an idea of WHERE to wear them! (truthfully, i came up with the dirty idea, but i still think it would be funnY) i had to convince her that was totally inappropriate and to put them back (truthfully she was on to me and said she would not let ME get her to spend HER money! lol) i ofcourse was so disciplined and left the store with nothing ( truthfully, i think we all know THAT was the biggest lie, err fairytale in the whole story! but i will not divulge what i got....)

sadly that was the end to our fairytale day of fun! HOORAY FOR FRIEND DAY!!!

**** this friend day was brought to you by christi and angi.....aka Tee and Gee!

Drop Spice Doughnuts!

2010-10-14T16:27:00.000-07:00

so i totally stole this off another person's blog. the original came from "Old Farmhouse Cooking" but they are really good so i wanted to share it with my friends who may not read her blog. but i gotta give credit where credit is due, especially if you make these and dont' like them! lol They were super easy and quick! i would put a link to this other blog cuz she has some other really good recipes but i am computer challenged in that area. my review, they were good, but i would probably add a bit more cinnamon or even apple pie spice to the mix. also some diced up apple and or nuts would be really good in it too! but we ate them as is for now. even sent some home with my mom for my dad. it made quite a few. i used a melon baller to keep them uniform size.

Drop Spice Doughnuts
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
3 cups flour
2/3 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
2 heaping tbsp. baking powder

Combine all ingredients

Use a spoon to drop batter into hot oil.

After several minutes flip doughnuts and fry on the other side.
Check to be sure they are fried all the way through.

Place on paper towels.
Roll in granulated sugar or shake in powdered sugar.

i want cutesy blogs too!

2010-10-11T07:51:00.000-07:00

i see/read all these really cute blogs. cute background, fun gadgets and widgets and hoo hahs! in a whiny voice i want all that too....however i am blog retarded! (*btw, i know it may be politically incorrect to use the word retarded, but retarded literally means slow and i am litterally blog slow, so if you take offense, be offended that i am blog slow, not of the word retarded).

i think my favorite blog, my blog of choice if you will, is "the imperfect housewife" she cracks me up. y'all should go and read her blog. i can so relate on so many levels. but she has all these cute little sidebar things if you will and is so funny in her blogs, makes me feel like the wallflower of the blogging world! lol in that effect, i guess she annoys me like the skinny girl that calls herself fat! lol then if you view my friend jill's pictures on her blog, oh boy, i feel like i have hand drawn my pictures! lol then i tried adding music like my friend jenifer (who rarely blogs so i don't feel too terrible about hers vs mine! LOL) and it ended up loud and annoying and now i have to figure out how to get if off there.

i am married to a computer geek, er i mean tech, and i have relied on him for all my computer needs, however i think i did myself a disservice in not learning myself. i have flunked computer 101 i think!
one last thing, does anyone else have issue with uploading pics on here. if i dont' upload them in the order of last first and slide them down like that, it gets all kinds of crazy trying to place them. am i doing something stupid or is that just how it goes and i need to put my big girl panties on and deal with it?

this week

2010-10-08T17:51:00.000-07:00

sunday,frankie talked to Pastor Felber about baptism. i suprised myself when i started welling up with tears while listening to him explain how he felt about wanting to learn more and his take on how Satan attacks us: "not in the same place where we could maybe build up an immunity, but he keeps attacking us in different places where we least expect it. he plays dirty!" so happy my son "gets it" and wants so desperately to fight for God. afterwards, while discussing his baptism, he asked "mom will there be an applause afterward?" i told him, probably not but there sure would be alot of AMENS!!

Also found out this week that a dear, dear friend was diagnosed with lupus. not sure of all the details, but she is a young woman with a promising future and i certainly will be praying for her.

Tried a new recipe this week. always nervous to do that! i am not a fan of instant oatmeal, i want to be, but i just can't get passed the texture. however, i do like oatmeal cookies and i love the smell of oatmeal! lol so i tried a recipe for baked oatmeal and added some diced apple to it. we all thought it was ok. chris and i felt it needed more apple, the kids said NO apple! so i will probably make it in two different pans next time, one with lots of apple and one without, maybe add a few choc chips in theirs for them! will definetly be good on a cold winter morning and it really tasted better heated up the next day anyway!

have been having a hard time with gracie sleeping wise. she keeps wanting to sleep out on the couch. we have been struggling with her sleeping habits since birth! i talked to chris about possibly getting a day bed for her so it would be more like a couch, but he did not want to invest that much money on a "possibility". i can't blame him, we have tried so many things in the past that did not work. so we moved her bed right up against the wall in a corner so she had the hard wall against two sides of her bed, then i went and bought 2 $10 bodypillows and made the "back of the couch" and her regular pillows for one end of "the couch" she uses her soft body pillow to block her in on the open side......so far she says it has really made her feel comfortable and has slept through the night in her room. yea! also while out getting the pillows i saw an asian woman wearing a red and white stripped sweater with tan and black plaid pants, gave me flashbacks to the mismatched patterns my grandma used to wear! i loved it! i would never wear it, but i loved it! lol

so far i have gotten all our bedrooms, living room, dinning room and kitchen decluttered, organized and clean! a huge task for a girl who was not taught how to clean your house other than a mad dash right before company comes.....even then i was only given the tasks to clean my room and dust! lol even those things didn't take! lol i have been a hoarder and an unorganized, messy one at that! so this has been a huge triumph for me. i can remember my mom coming and cleaning my room as a teenager, if i was gone for a long enough period. i was fine with it as long as i didn't know or realize what she threw out, however when she threw out the plastic easter egg that held chris armstrong's chewed up gum (yes i was boderline stalker!lol) i could about have died! now i go into gracie's room and see she has become worse than i was!! lol and she's not even a teenager yet!! i really hate when my mom's words "how can you live in this mess" or something to that effect come out of MY mouth! lol oh well, maybe i can break the cycle! lol well i better go cover the bird's cage and plan my chores for tommorow.....

my son the missionary!

2010-10-01T06:38:00.001-07:00

wanted to share with you all cuz quite frankly (no pun intended!) it's very exciting to me! some good news, frankie announced to us today that although he has said he wanted to be a zoologist since he could talk, he really feels God is calling him into the field of missions. he wants to be a missionary! i said frankie i think that is wonderful. if you still feel that way when you graduate, your dad and i will support you 100% ! i said, i do believe you need to think about getting baptized, he said i want to mom, but i feel like i need to get to know God a little better first. i told him let's just talk to pastor ferber on sunday and see what he says. (i don't want to push him into baptizim, but i really feel he needs to do it). then chris was teasing him and said you gonna be like john, or paul, and i said hopefully with a happier ending, and he looked me in the eye and very seriously said, mom, if that is what God's will for me is, i'm ok with it. i asked him what has made him think this, he said, the last few weeks in his bible lesson he'd kinda been feeling like it but wanted to see if the feeling would go away. he said he thinks he's going to start reading his bible now during his 10 min breaks during school time........God is GOOD!! even if he doesn't follow down this path, just his willingness to listen to God and to do whatever God wants, his desire to serve him, makes me a very happy mama! AND really makes me feel we have done the right thing in homeschooling.

this and that

2010-09-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

well i had lots of little thoughts, i really should write them down as i get them, but i feel they are too short for a blog.

for instance, last week when our homeschool group headed downtown to the creation expo, yes, downtown, the place i HATE AND FEAR to drive to and in, but, i didn't want that to keep us from going, so i bravely caravanned, while white knuckled, feeling like throwing up and it didn't help that as we are on I65 at a tricky part of the interstate, the song "if i die young" comes on the radio.......really! am i supposed to get a hint here! luckily we made it safe and sound and emotionally drained, then sat for 2.5 hrs of a very scientific explanation about the proof that God created the world and not some big bang. well here is the thing, this was a bunch of KIDS they were talking to, the science was over MY head, let alone theirs. i dont' know, nor care how much helium is in a rock, i come from the stance, i believe it so, on faith, i don't care what the science is, for a reason too, it's too confusing! lol seriously though, i would not care if science supported the big bang therory, i would still believe what the Bible said, however i understand not everyone functions that way. although, i have to say all the kids in that room were very well behaved for such a long.....scientific lecture.

on the home front, as boring as this sounds, i have finally gotten 50% of the house decluttered and cleaned, the hard part is re-training everyone (including myself) to constantly pick up after ourselves so we can keep it that way! you wouldn't think that was such a problem, but i think so often it is unconsciencly done, we leave the room without taking our junk out of it! and it piles and piles til no one wants to clean it! ughhh! chris and i think we may put the house up for sale in a year or two so i would like to get our "cleaning" habits if you will, up to par by then so it's not such a drain to do so when it's listed. we are thinking of moving south or east to new palestine when we sell this house.

frankie's 12th birthday has come and gone. we did not have school that day, instead i took the kids for doughnuts in the morning, then to the movie "legend of the guardians" that frankie had been dying to see, then we came home, packed stuff up and went to kroger to get snack food for the hotel and picked up his bff blake and headed to caribbean cove. the kids were super excited and it turned out so much fun for them. i took the laptop and played a game on it while they swam. chris went in with them and took them up on the slides. fun was had by all. they swam until about 1:30pm the next day, came home and chris took them out to supper and putt putt golfing while i cleaned at home.

also on the home front, we have been eating out like crazy! i have just had no desire to cook. well i feel the time has come to get back to it. i have been trying to come up with a few new recipes and to make myself get motivated. whenever i look through the old "return to the fifties" books i get motivated homemaker wise, so out came the books along with the recipe books. found a ham, potatoe, and pea recipe that i made, the kids scrunched their noses to it, but we made them taste it and suprise! they were asking if there was any left over the next day. now i have fallen into this trap before, we'll see if they truly liked it if they actually eat it the next time i make it!

lastly, i have contemplated back and forth about facebook. i didn't mind not having it and really at this point, i do not get on there very often, however i end up posting on there rather than here. so i think i may try, starting a blog, and adding to it each day of the week, the little things and then posting it at the end of the week. sorta like a journal, we'll see. i always have wonderful ideas and intentions and they don't always get followed through on......

just dance!

2010-09-18T17:45:00.000-07:00

i will admit to being extremely lazy this morning....however, i did move alot this afternoon! i had seen and read good reviews on the wii game "just dance". so i had chris put it in the que on gamefly. it came yesterday. well while i was being lazy i got on fb and saw gracie had already tried it! how pitiful am i? our house is not large and yet i had to read on fb that my daughter had already tried it! just another clue as to how bad we have gotten! anyway, i hollared that i had wanted to see it, when did she do it? so we left our rooms and headed for the living room....again, how pitiful are we! we put it in and i sat and watched her for the first few songs! i could not get over how good she was! for a girl who seems to be extremely clumsy, she certainly has good rhythm! AND she was enjoying it! i was enjoying it myself....but like frankie, a little unsure that i wanted to humiliate myself in front of the kids! well, atleast chris was not up stairs or i am not sure i would have participated! alot of the songs were from the 80's and a few from the oldies, which i guess some would now call the 80's! ha! i slowly started trying to move just my arms to the motions. gracie was making it look so easy, and hey, i HAD been in jubilares! so i thought, ok, how hard can this be..... famous last words! i was NO LONGER a teenager, and evidently if you don't work your rhythm, you loose it! haha! however, i gave it the good ol college try! not that i ever went to college! so i stood next to grace and we danced our hearts out, mine gave out before hers ofcourse! once she finished, i went on to check out all the songs and dances on there! and dance a little more. i must admit to it being alot of fun, even as bad as i was. but twords the end, if i had more energy, i think i could have done tons better. it def works up a sweat. never did get frankie to do it. he would rather sit on the couch and say how disturbing it was to see his mom dancing and oh the humanity! i kept reminding him there was a whole other part of the house he could go to, but it was all in good fun! at one point, gracie said, MOM! your so old, it's doesn't go like that, it goes like this! i said, grace, your lucky i am able to even try it let alone get it right! lol so i think i may use this game as an incentive to get her to finish her school stuff at a reasonable time so she and i can "dance" for awhile!

my confessions

2010-09-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

haven't been on here for awhile, i allowed myself back on facebook and it seems to have taken me away from here! and that is just the first of my confessions.......
i have discovered, that next year, i don't think i will be able to have my big ol' garden as i had hoped. my desire is there, but my skin just is not cooperating. this season, my skin has fought all summer long and even now, not in the garden i am still working to get it healed. i am so bummed about this, but it is what it is. i can say i do know HOW to garden and can maybe even still grow a few things on a much smaller scale and in boxes, but my dreams of a self sufficient food supply (fruits and veggie wise) are gone......*pouting*. so next year i guess i will have to rely on farmer's markets etc....
also, in wanting to organic and chemical and process free in our home, has also not been a success.... too much work and not enough time. i found us eating out more (defeating the purpose) and spending more money on "organic" food and then spending more money eating out at non organic places! soooo i now resolve, to start small and try making BETTER choices (such as unbleached flour vs white) instead of BEST "whole wheat organic" etc...... i guess we are all gonna die sometime but if i keep pressuring myself to be "organic" it's gonna be sooner! plus, when i can take some of that pressure off, it makes cooking at home quicker, easier and more enjoyable. i AM trying to work more veggies and fruits in our diets and less junk, fixing vegetable instead of chips, or sunchips vs ruffles, when we do have chips! etc.... babysteps.

still working on fitting excersise into our daily routine. i am soooo NOT a morning person and neither are my kids, but once the day begins it gets busy and it's hard to get ourselves motivated. when you have a break you think " ughhh i just want to sit down and veg" instead of "gee i think i shall go for a walk" haha! ya not us, but it NEEDS to be us. atleast get ourselves moving on the wii fit games, SOMETHING!!! i will confess to having become addicted to watching shows on the computer. i felt so good to be able to say, ya we don't own cable, well who needs to when you have netflix and all the tv shows online! i just switched one screen for another and while the screen may have got smaller, my rear screen has gotten wider!

i have made great strides in the decluttering process of our house. still have alot to go, but feel good about what i have done. i think the next step is going to be convincing myself i dont' need so much of the non clutter but "practical" stuff! honestly i see tiny homes and think how does one fit all their stuff in there. if i was single with no kids, all my stuff would not fit in that house! but i think it is because they either have less stuff or they are destined to be on that show "hoarders" and when you go inside you see the house is literally being held up by "stuff"! i try to lay in bed and think.....if i had just a couple hours to load up our vehicles and get to some place safe, what would i realllly want to take with us.....then i KNOW what is most important to hang on to and the rest is negotiable. i KNOW i would want my sewing machine and fabric, but do i really need all those craft supplies? i KNOW i would want all our pictures, but do i really need all that memoriabilia? etc.... the only thing i can't decide, even in thos scenarios is if we really need all the blankets we own. i mean, blankets can be so versatile, used to wrap items in, to spread on the ground, to keep you warm, to cover a window (only in desperate times) and can be remade or cut into scraps, etc...
our homeschool front is going like this: again i confess to NOT being a morning person. frankie however, is really good about setting his alarm, getting himself up, gettng breakfast, and starting school. meanwhile, gracie and i are still in bed! sometimes she gets up and gets going on her own, but alot of times i go in and wake her up. frankie is fairly good about getting his stuff done and not needing help, except in math. gracie, she has a hard time staying on task. she likes to come up with any and every excuse to have to stop that video and do something or ask something. i have tried many tactics to fix this and some work sometimes and some work none of the times. the thing is, i knew she was doing this at public school too. i just need to figure out why and how to fix it. i am the same way, unless it's watching a show, i have a hard time keeping my focus on task. my mind wanders to this and that. maybe it's a girl thing, i don't know. and no, it's not add, though we tease it is. i think it MIGHT be a sensory thing. i am going to experiment with that and see how it goes. however, even with her lack of focus, she is doing better on her work than frank. while he has the self motivation, he does not have the patience he needs to slow down. he needs to read all the directions instead of glancing and thinking he knows what to do and he needs to recheck his work. alot of times when i point out an error, it was not due to him not knowing how to do it, but rather an error because he was rushing.....again same issues he had in public school. the difference is, i do not have to worry about a class full of kids therefor i am able to sit and try to figure out the whys and the hows to fix it....hopefully.....

on the church front.....we have finally found a new church we are happy at. it is full of homeschool families which is wonderful in and of itself. but also the kids have had great success in making new friends, we love the preaching and i THINK we will fit in nicely. i have a habit of volunteering for any and everything when i am new somewhere, so i am really trying to restrain myself from doing that here. i usually do so much i burn out quickly. i don't want to do that here. so i am doing some sewing for now, but i reallly enjoy that. i am restraining from volunteering to clean the church. they have mentioned twice that they need volunteers but i really don't have the time with homeschooling and this church is over a half hour away, so at this time it's not practical. but my incessant need to please tries to rear her head, but for now i am able to tame her. i want to take our time, get to know people and slowly get involved, a new approach for me, that's for sure, but one i feel strongly about doing. here's my selfish confession, we have been so hurt over the years by supposed "christian" friends, i have to admit (confess) i am hesitant to get too close to new people at this point, which is very uncharacteristic and unnatural for me, but something i feel is important at this time. now i do have to add, we have also found tremendous friendships from our christian brothers and sisters as well, but i just want to take things slow this time. i know being a christian does not by any means make you perfect, in fact the farthest thing from, it's in acknowleding your a sinner, that is a huge part of it. but there are just somethings, you really don't expect a christian to do! that doesn't mean i don't forgive, but i sure can not erase the damage it does. i admit to having done some mean things to people in the past as well, and so i try not to judge, but not judging is not the same as forgetting. if you get hurt doing something, it doesn't mean you won't do it again, it just means you will be extra careful the next time.......

and so on that i am finishing...... i have gotten alot off my mind tonite. i have tried off and on to keep a daily diary like my granny did. i'm definetly not great at sticking to anything! so this is the closest i think i will get. but i have to say, her daily diaries were short, there were so many things i wish she had expanded on, that leave me with even more questions....so i am trying to answer any questions my kids/grandkids my have one day as well as help them get to know me and how i felt at different times in my life. i need to start printing these blogs off and keeping them in a binder for both my kids (cuz i need one more thing to have to store! lol). or maybe just burn them to disk, that might be easier! ha!

what this summer has taught me...

2010-07-28T16:34:00.000-07:00

i have been reflecting lately on just what all i have learned this past summer and how much has changed and what things still have not changed! first of all, and i think the biggest is my willingness to work in the heat! i used to run, well maybe not run, as i am not into running, but walk very fast to avoid it. i hated it. anything that was uncomfortable, i simply did not do. however, i discovered how good i can feel and the accomplishment i can feel after spending a day outside dripping with sweat (yes i enjoy sweating now) getting things done. i enjoy even more the reward of stepping back and SEEING all the work i've done. God has blessed us this whole summer with giving us a good rain atleast once a week so i have not needed to water the garden hardly at all as of yet. chris was able to get a really nice new weedwacker half way through this summer and so he is getting better about staying on top of that. and our wonderful discovery of straw. yes straw is a gardeners best friend! we were weeding forever every other week until we finally put down the straw and it has helped immensly. i will def purchase a ton of that wonderful gold at the BEGINNING of spring next year. our other wonderful discovery, for about a week, is mulch. however we have found even if you put the black landscape stuff or biodegradable paper down first the weeds continue to grow up through that and the mulch, but it sure does look good for about a week!
i also have finally learned, that my husband will usually do all he can to help me and keep me from throwing yard tools around the yard (happy wife, happy life)! i went out today to tackle the way overgrown bushes with the hedge trimmer, he came out and saw me struggling and laughed and took over. i DID keep helping, but it was sure nice for him to do that before i lost my temper fighting with the stupid things! he even called the kids out and had them rake and throw the trimmings in the trash.
another thing i learned, everyone thinks if you have extra vegetables, you should put up a stand and sell them. however, first of all, i don't have the time to mess with a stand, second of all, that would require keeping cash on hand, which i don't often do, and third, it makes me happy to be able to give my family and friends fresh veggies that i grew myself (with God's help ofcourse) and i feel like God blesses us when we share with others. if chris ever looses his job, then i may stick HIM out front with a stand, but in the meantime, i will continue to GIVE the extras away.
i also have learned many do's and don'ts about gardening again, which i will write down later, but i also learned how you can freeze everything when in the thick of harvesting so you can go back later when you have more time and can or make jam or salsa etc....
also, that my daughter, God love her, was NOT made to work in the heat as it aggrevates her eczema so bad and she ends up covered in a horrible itchy painful rash. we have decided in the heat of summer she needs to stick to indoor chores.
and last but not least, we learned how fast the summer can go even when you don't have specific plans, life seems to take care of giving you plenty to do.

Frank Toth Sr.

2010-07-13T09:36:00.001-07:00

July 14, 2010 will be the one year anniversary of my father in law's passing. i said it then and i will say it again, i have never met a man as great and wonderful as this man. if this world had more Frank Toth's in it, it would be a better place. i added atleast one of them (haha) and hope he does the name justice. i woke up yesterday morning with this anniversary on my mind. i grabbed a pen and paper and the following is what came out. This is in memory of that dear man, who ALWAYS treated me as one of his own daughters from day one.

Frank Toth

A teacher, a husband, a brother
A father, a friend, a good son to his mother
A leader, a Christian, a sailor among men
Everyone of these hats, he wore all of them
Honest, loyal, intelligent and funny
Things that were more important to him then money
Loving, caring and sometimes strict
Don’t talk in church or the finger would pinch
Morals, values and lessons he would teach
People from every generation he could reach
In his wife he found his greatest love
Only God himself could rate above
His children, he loved to have around
A better father, nowhere on Earth could be found
The garden, the church, the school or the fair
If you look in these places, he was sure to be there
Down in the basement just a painting away
Or at the supper table, discussing his day
Coffee in an orange mug & cigarette in hand
These became loving trademarks for this wonderful man
How rare it is to meet a man like this
Which is why, this man is so sorely missed
For even though, we will see him again
Things just aren’t the same without this truly great man
However Frank Toth, you still carry on
In your grandkids, your wife, you daughters and sons
You see, while here on Earth, you made a huge mark
You left footprints in everyone of our hearts
And as the dawn breaks of each day anew
We remember again, how much we still love you

geocaching

2010-07-03T07:14:00.000-07:00

so, long ago, in a familyfun magazine, i read about geocaching, sounded fun, but i did not pursue it. Then a teacher at the kids school, became very into it and posted about it on her fb ALOT! so i decided to check it out again. While it isn't the passion for us, that it is for the teacher (yet anyway,) it is very fun and cheap, plus it gets the whole family moving. not to mention you learn so much about places you never even realized, that are around where you live,

and alot of times there are other educational aspects. for instance in the spirit quest series, they are all in cemetaries and it gives you a little history on some of the tombstones and the people that occupy them. they also request, wherever you go, you take trashbags and help clean up wherever you are. so... now, do i have your interest peaked at all? i would say our top 10 reasons for loving geocaching and wanting to share it with others are the following:

10. you get plenty of excersise, but it's so fun you either don't realize it or don't care.

9. once you purchase your gps, (who doesn't have one of those now a days anyway) the only expense you HAVE to put out is your gas. AND if you do caches close to home, you could even ride your bikes or walk, so technically.....lol

8. the adventure.....if you love the challenge of an "i spy" book or trying to solve a puzzle, you will probably love geocaching

7.discovering places you never knew they were there.

6 realizing there are "secret" caches all around where you pass on a daily basis.

5. some of the stories you come away with of what happened while you were out geocaching

4. finding places that would be "perfect" to hide a geocache

3. planning the trips, seeing where all the caches out there are and which to start with, it's like walking into a store of all your favorite candy! where to begin!?

2. the challenges, trying to "solve the puzzle" to get the correct coordinates sometimes, and then when you find the cache.....

1. the time spent with family and often friends. you can spend a whole day and it seem like an hour has passed. no matter the heat or the cold, you don't mind.....

How WE Geocache

1. go to http://www.geocaching.com/

2. go to the "hide and seek" section and type in your zip code

3. you can either download the caches you want to go to onto a gps (if it has that ability) or print the pages out for each cache. i like to do both, that way one person can be using the gps but the rest can see the papers.

4. set your course. plan the order you want to hit them. i strongly recommend this so you aren't back tracking alot.

5. i like to have a list of all the caches i plan to try to find and then i can write the date found and any funny little thing to remember (ie. this is where i fell in the mud) for later

6. some caches have little toys in them, you are allowed to take one but you are supposed to replace it with something of equal or greater value. we bought some little toys from the dollar store and keep those with us.

7. make sure to sign the logs that are in every geocache.

8. when you get home go back to the geocach website and log your visit as found, or not found and any little story you want on there. many times what people log have helped us find the right spot from clues given in the logs.

...and that is about it, it's very fun, exciting and educational. i hope you decide to atleast try it once, i have a feeling you will get hooked. there is much more "varities" of it out there, such as travel bugs etc... but this is the basics.

curly sue

2010-06-13T07:31:00.000-07:00

gracie got her first perm! i was explaining to her how after the curlers were in, she would put the stinky stuff on, gracie said how do you know it's stinky, have YOU gotten a perm recently? i said gracie, you only have to have one perm in your life to know and remember how stinky the stuff is! lol

she's begining to learn what women go through to look pretty!

she wasn't thrilled to put the bag on her head but she sure looked cute though!

after getting the curlers out she said it fell like a million pounds had been lifted off her head, after a million went on when she was rinsing them.

and after all that......half of it didn't even take, it's still straight on alot of her head. going back today to see what we can do.

Bombs AWAY!!!

2010-06-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

when chris came home thursday night, he parked in his regular spot in the driveway. there are no trees anywhere near where he parks. there are bushes to the right and a garage to the left. no trees. so imagine our suprise friday morning when we looked out at the car. and witnessed a full scale artillery attack from some of our feathered friends. in the following "evidence" the crime scene photos that follow, the first one, of the front windshield it is alot clearer than when i first went out because i had to use the windshield wipers to be able to see!

in conclusion, i would like to state for the record, these birds were not flying the "friendly" skies that day!!!

Gardening in the summer

2010-06-09T18:49:00.000-07:00

well here we are, the start of the summer, and i am already learning some things i want to do differently next year in the garden. AND i am remembering how fast this yard can get out of hand, especially with as much rain and heat as we have been having so far. however i will say i think we are doing better staying more on top of it this year than in years past. but let me share some of my thoughts. more for myself to remember and to hopefully one day help my kids. first let me state that once again, i have failed to fix the date on the camera (stupid camera) and no i did not take these pictures 10 years ago! lol

my strawberry patch. we had wonderful strawberries, but i quickly realized the patch was a bit wide and i need to revise how the future strawberries are planted. i need to put them in actual rows so we can reach them more easily and i need to mulch with straw so the don't get yucky from laying on the ground. i didn't realize (duH) with their weight they would end up on the ground. due to that, this season is over due to the moldy and yucky ones on the ground. but we did harvest quite a bit before hand.

The "orchard" we have started in the back. there are several fruit and nut trees back there with little wire fences around them. but for now i just want this picture for future reference on how it used to look before they matured!

a little closer view of the orchard trees amonst the established ones. i love my big trees. they are the most wonderful shade tree, but i will soon have to raise their canopies to allow sun to my plants!

my little peach tree. we planted it last year and we were not supposed to get fruit on it for a couple years. however these peaches did not read those rules as they are already growing.

The back of the main garden

Side of main garden. i believe i planted like 22 tomato plants. i have a few different types i wanted to try, plus my main ones.

my bush beans. much easier so far than the pole beans, we will see what kind of yields i get though. however it disturbs me greatly when it comes time to thin them to pull out completely healthy plants and just throw them out! but they did come up really well, which is more than i can say for my corn!

The corn, ohhhh my arch enemy this year! alot of the corn planted did not come up, however, i had a few rows that did well, so when i thinned those out i decided to try and transplant them in the spots the other corn did not come up. in fact one whole row is transplants. i will know later if i should have just used new seed or if the transplants were a good idea.

Ohhhhh my peas and sugar snap peas!!!! this is not the greatest year for those. this year i decided to use a trellis for them to grow up instead of string. well maybe my trellis was too thick, i'm not sure, but the plants would NOT grow up them, they kept laying on the ground no matter how hard we tried to train them up, and then i couldn't weed in between the rows, and you see it is part peas part grass in there! however we have been able to harvest a fairly good batch so far.

cucumber. well i am still not completely sure on how far apart i should have planted them, so we will see if these were too close or if i should have thinned these out as well. like the beans they came up really good. we got the fencing up a few days later than i wanted, because in those few days they grew quite a bit and it was harder to get them going up the fence. we will see how well this idea goes. last year i used string for these as well.

my melon patch. chris dug this out for me to have a seperate area for them as the vines tend to take over. my goal is to keep all vines inside this area! my melon seeds i started indoors did not survive so i got 2 watermelon and 1 canteloupe plants at the farmers market. we'll see how they do.

my potato patch! i am soo excited about that! i have red potatos, blue potatoes and white potatoes all growing. however when frankie and his friend blake helped me plant them, some how they ended up in not so straight of rows and some were coming up in the middle of rows which makes weeding harder. but i have to get in there and get it done. i just have not done it yet but when i do, you can be sure i will be mulching so don't have to do it again!

my berry row. this is where my blackberry and raspberry plants are. we transplanted them 2 years ago in the fall. we just dug them up from around the yard and put them in one place. last year they started growing and this year they have produced berries. though not too terribly big on size, they are huge on flavor. need to learn more about growing them so hopefully we can get a better turn out on the raspberries next year. the blackberries are still flowering and green but we've picked some of the raspberries so far.

the grapes! the white grapes have taken off this year! they have already reached the top of the arbor and they even have grapes growing on them! we planted all these plants last year, but we think these get more sun than the others which is why they have done so well. next to them are 2 concord grap plants that aren't doing bad. then on the other side are two red grape plants, which accidently got mowed over last year so they are not quite too big yet.

well that is all for now. i have my middle of the season look to remember next year when planning what to do the same and what not to do and maybe even some new ideas.

So far this summer

2010-06-09T18:41:00.000-07:00

just have to say we have been having such a nice summer, that even the few bad things that have happened have not been able to spoil it. we had sat down to family game night sundy and i looked out the window, it was so neat the way the bottom was dark, then clear sky in the middle then dark again. i grabbed my camera to take the picture out the window when i realized the half rainbow in the sky! i felt like i was living in the treasure at the bottom as i am currently totally content in life at this time. i would like to always feel this way, but i have a feeling we will eventually have to join the real world again! lol

stolen identity and a rabied raccoon!

2010-06-05T19:09:00.001-07:00

well the week had been going pretty good. we were getting alot of fun done and some of the work i scheduled. then thursday evening i went to kroger to get some things and my card kept saying not authorized. luckily i had cash for what i was purchasing, but i called chris on the way home and told him what happened, he got onto our acct and asked me (now why he even thought i would say yes, i don't know) if i bought something for $1100! i was like uhhh NO!!!! long story short (as short as i am capable of making one) someone had stole my information including my debit card and used it online to purchase $1100 from a company in ITALY!!! the fraud dept caught it right away and with in 5 minutes put a hold on my card but not before allowing the charge to go through. soooo longer story short again, we will be getting the money back in our acct once the transaction has "posted" although i think it is stupid to not have in your "system" a way to stop a PENDING transaction when it has been disputed! so we are thinking we will probably start buying alot more checks and using alot more cash cuz evidently the chances of me getting robbed vs getting my identity stolen are way less, especially since this happened about a year or so ago with chris' card!
now, onto today, chris took the kids out to pick strawberries. a friend stopped by and he and chris walked over to our lean to to discuss how to fix it and our friend said "what's that there" well turned out to be a raccoon suffering from rabies. he was slowly dying and just laying there, foaming at the mouth and quick shallow breathing. very sad. but also scary, it was just outside of our gate/fence and our dog goes over there all the time when we let him out of the fenced area. tried calling animal control but they didn't have an officer available. for some reason, call me stupid, but i would think that would be a job you would have round the clock people available for, since animals like this raccoon, don't really have access to their regular hours. but whatever. so they lady told him to use a shovel to pick him up and dispose of him in a trash bag/trashcan or dumpster. well let me tell you, we are the trashy toth's and dispose of much trash between the house and the yard on a weekly basis so we have a small dumpster and in he went. however we thought he was pretty close to the end, but as this happened this morning, as of 8 tonite, he was still alive in there. sooo sad. and no there will definetly not be any pictures for this post...ewwww!

daily life

2010-06-01T20:22:00.001-07:00

ok, let me start by saying, i have tried to find books on the daily life of women from the depression years to the 1950's (the years i am most interested in) and there are very few to none out there that i could locate. i tried to turn to my grandmother's diaries but the entries, though daily, did not tell much about her day to day life. so i am trying to be better about this for my kids and grandkids sakes. hopefully they will not find it terribly boring, cuz let me tell ya, living it certainly is not boring! ha!

today, my first waking thought was, i have to get up and get going, we HAVE to stick to this schedule printed up for the kids. well then the lady on my other shoulder said, while it is good to have a guideline, the benefit of staying home with the kids is that you DON'T have to be so strict on times. then the other voice said louder, but you know yourself, and how easy it is to just let it all go and say forget it for today until today is next month etc.... so i compromised with my voices (there's enough fighting with the kids in this house, i don't need to be fighting with myself!) i decided to put a limit on my sleeping in, no later than 9 and that is if i was up really late the night before. AND to be really strict on the items on the list but maybe not so much on the time.

So i got up, reluctantly. today is teaching tuesday. it also was whitebean chilli for supper and ricekrispy treats for snack day. sooo gracie learned how to grate cheese and chicken on the grater for the soup, and frankie learned how to make ricekrispy treats. i also taught them about how to measure things out, how some recipes need to be exact and others not so much. ***on a side note, i just have to put it in cuz i thought about it the whole time gracie was working. frankie's friend blake was over the other day and the cheese grater was out on the counter, he said "is that a real grater thingy!?" i said yes and he goes "that is soooo cool" and went on about it for a couple minutes more, i had to laugh and thought wow, what this generation doesn't know! lol anyway i go back to .....SQUIRREL! so back to the cooking lesson. they both did really good, and did not fight at all, in fact they were quite helpful to each other, which really set the mood for most of the day. so once that was going, we packed up the coolers into the van for the cold groceries we would be getting, (we go to 3 different stores each time to get the best food at the best prices) made up some water bottles and snacks as we are determined NOT to eat fast food any more and off we went. * btw i thought my cell was in my purse and it was actually in the car chris took to work, but it was actually really nice not having that distraction. i think the kids enjoyed it too!
we stopped at jo ann fabrics first to get supplies for thursday's craft project and next tuesdays sewing lesson. they both decided right away they would take turns sitting up front, which was a miracle and wonderful at the same time!
then off to aldi's. both kids were great all day fetching things for me and learning about what kind of things we get and why. we like aldi's for the cheapest prices but they don't ever have everything we need and i really don't care for most of their produce. while there, gracie and i noticed and elderly lady with a cane, getting ready to take her cart back to the coral, gracie offered take it back for her and return with the quarter, she agreed but told her to keep the quarter. then as she finished that, there was yet another elderly lady with a cane and she again offered to take the cart back and hand her the quarter and she too told her she could keep the quarter. we laughed and i told gracie she just earned the equivelant of a 30 minute card in less than 2 mins!
then we headed to walmart, where the non food prices are the best and some of our groceries. we have also been trying to do away with the ten million plastic grocery bags we come home with and been using our wonderful LARGE aldi's canvas bags. i love these cuz hey hold alot and they are very durable, highly recommend them, they are only $1.99 a bag too! it's easy with aldi cuz they don't bag, they just put all the groceries back in your cart and you go bag yourself. however at walmart and kroger i usually forget the bags in the car, so i decided to just go with the aldi way today and told the cashier, don't bag them just put them all back in the cart. i figured i might get stopped leaving with all that in my cart and no bags, them thinking i didn't check out, so i had receipt in hand, but all he said was, have a nice day! ha! at this point we were getting really hungry, we had only had waffles before we left, but we were determined not to grab something, so we marched on to kroger, got the produce and the last remaining things there. i got as much organic as possible, but they are limited on what produce they have there, i need to plan trips to the farmers' market better until my own garden comes in. i got our organic chicken nuggets and noticed they had hamburger patties and rolls of hamburger, both from pasture fed cows. i was really excited. i knew they would be a bit more, but i thought, i am "voting" to buy and support organic, however at the check out, that tiny roll of hamburger that was not even a POUND was $6.99!!! ok, we will become vegetarians before i will pay that much for hamburger. (i returned the meat for a refund before we left the store) we definetly need to look into getting the bulk meat from local farmers!
home we went, where thankfully chris was home from work and was able to help carry in groceries. we got to talking so gracie helped by starting to put groceries away. the soup was done and calling our names! i had a bowl and chris and i headed out to the yard, started working out there til frankie came out and reminded me about their daily in the word that started in a few minutes and i had not put it together for them yet. so i came in, did that and went ahead and planned out the next two weeks lessons. then we all ate some more soup and pretty much relaxed the rest of the day. i must say, it was a crazy busy day, but it was one of the most relaxful and enjoyable days i have spent with my kids in a long time! i hope this is a forcast for the rest of the summer.
btw, adding 2 T of vineger to chilli does NOT cut down on the gas!

Chore charts

2010-05-31T11:03:00.000-07:00

well much to their dismay, chore charts and 30 min cards started back up today with a little twist. i tweaked some of the chores, but also, instead of saving cards for webkinz, each card is worth 50cents. sooo they can either use them for tv, video games etc... or on saturdays they can turn them into money. now since we rarely have cash on hand, i decided to use it to our advantage. i took two check registers and have one for each of them. they have a starting balance of $5 in their checking and $1 in their savings. on saturdays they decide what they are turning into money. 10% goes for their tithe (which they will be given hard cash for, and 10% gets moved into their savings (also kept track of in register). registers will be kept in my purse, so if we are out and about and they want something, they can see if they have enough money in their "account" and if they do, then i will buy it for them and it gets deducted from their account. also if they use up all their cards and need to give one to us for discipline reasons but have none, it comes out of their account (again 50 cents per card)
now in order to encourage GOOD behavior, i have made us all the electricity police. if we catch one of them leaving a light on or tv, radio etc... (not including fans) they give us a 30 min card, however if they catch us doing the same, we give them one. they just are not allowed to police each other.
also, to encourage physical activity, they can earn a card for 30 mins of activity. such as if they go swimming for 30 min or more, they get a card, if they go walking etc... but i set a limit of 1 card per activity per day. and made inside and outside activities, such as the wii fit or my stationary bike (they can reach now) so if it's raining they can still earn them .
my hope is, like last year to get ourselves in a routine and practice self dicipline.
i also have "specials" that if they work will carry over into the school year. we have a different focus for each day. however they know some days things may come up where these things aren't possible, but on good days this is what we will be focusing on, monday is library and bowling, tues is learning day, i want to work on teaching them things like cooking, sewing, laundry etc... wed is setting goals, checking on our goals and organizing, thursday special craft project, friday journaling our week, saturday payday/banking, sunday family game day.
sooo this is my way of practicing for the school year yet making it somewhat fun for the kids. plus teaching and training them for life. i'm sure some days will work better than others, but we have a plan. now if we can just stick to it.

quick funny

2010-05-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

this just made me laugh. i decided to be nice and get some steaks to grill out with. i had stuck them in the freezer until the night i wanted to cook them. i had them on the counter to defrost and my kids, being very excited to see steak out had written a little "thank you" on them in the ice on the meat. cracked me up when i saw

it!

mother's day 2010

2010-05-28T20:47:00.000-07:00

I was not expecting much. i ask for the same thing every year and never get it....the kids to not fight. however, this year the day started off with a wonderful smell of waffles in the air. my assumption (You know what they say about assuming!) was chris got the kids up to help make me breakfast. NOPE, a little later, gracie heads into frankie's room to wake him up, now this was like 7:30 in the morning! a minute later, in they come with "breakfast in bed". no sign of chris. i asked gracie if her dad helped her, she said no he was still sleeping. i could not believe this girl who had never even turned the stove on, had made me waffles, eggs and toast all by herself! AND it was tasty! she had also made me a picture card and frankie had typed me up a poem. we then headed to try another new church. i had been getting so discouraged as of late, but what a wonderful mother's day suprise to not only finally attend the church we think we will join, but to see familiar faces there from our old church FBC!!! later, i took a long nap and then we taught the kids to play clue and decided to implement family game night! and the cherry on top was the kids did NOT fight all day! this was truly the best mothers day i have ever had!

Going Organic

2010-05-28T19:37:00.000-07:00

Call me a fanatic. Most of my family and friends know, with me, it's usually all or nothing! I usually throw myself into something or am not interested AT ALL! i am now becoming one of "those" who goes for organic! i used to be the one who looked at the "healthy" food section at the store, roll my eyes, and think, ya, go spend twice as much for a smaller package, ya right! Now i find myself amazed at what i can find at the local Kroger, even if it's in the "healthy" food section. such as hormone free, no antibiotic chicken nuggets! (that was a very exciting moment! ) As you all know, I started my journey in gardening last year. Learned lots of lessons in what NOT to do, that's for sure! (if your interested check out that blog). I have stuck with this desire for longer than most interests i have... (Squirrel!) . i still want to garden for the same reasons, ie. save money, pride in what you've done, less mowing....lol. But i am now finding even more reasons, such as all the chemicals on/in grocery store food, not to mention the poor quality. but after watching the documentary Food Inc. it's also to quit encouraging and "voting" if you will to the big companies that are bullying the farmers and producing par quality food at a higher and higher cost to us and not just monetarily. They are destroying the soil so the food will not get any better, yet the raise the prices. They also use so much chemicals and pesticides, the food isn't even natural in the seed itself! Don't even get me started on the meat in the stores, restaraunts and fast food places. I am disgusted with myself for feeding my kids that for so long. So now i am on a quest, to find LOCAL farmers who grass feed their animals, to buy my meat and dairy from, and to grow, can and freeze all my own produce so i know it's fresh and the best quality i can provide. until i get better i will have to subsidize my homegrown with someone else's so i have chosen to go to farmer's markets, and question them on what they use. Luckily the downtown market, has mostly organic vegetables, so i can buy them. in the meantime, i am encouraged with my own harvest thus far.....my strawberry patch. they are the most beautiful strawberries and i grew them myself. my small little patch has put out quite the bounty so far and still has many growing! my family and i had been saving the cartons you buy strawberries in from the store, so i can REUSE (my new favorite thing to do) with my own. Today i picked 4 cartons full from my little patch. i can hardly keep up with them! we plan to extend the patch so i can freeze and can a bunch. it's crazy how much food we can grow ourselves just in our backyard....IF it all does as well as my strawberry patch!

and yes, the camera still needs a new date set....

Anne of Green Gables

2010-05-28T19:23:00.000-07:00

Gracie's end of the year book report was done on Anne of Green Gables. Anyone that knows me, knows this is my ultimate favorite book and movie! So obviously, I was tickled pink, err green, she chose that book! she did her report, a poster board and dressed up like Anne (as best we could with a modified goodwill dress, old apron and braids! lol). I was very pleased with her.

The kids were given options on what they could do with this final project. Some chose a power point presentation, some gave oral reports. One child chose a model from a scene from his book. Now I must say I am one that loves lots of bright colors and the effort put in was great! However, for many reasons, especially since it was a young boy's project, I think I would have coved the bottom of the box with some construction paper or something! HAHAHAHAHA!

And yes i know the date on the camera needs to be fixed big time.

Firestarters

2010-05-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to find ways to reuse things and come up with homemade alternatives for as much as i can. Luckily my friend Jenifer, the Martha Stewart of all my friends, taught me a wonderful "craft" if you will, that does both. We have 2 firepits in our backyard. Chris usually starts the fires in them, however I attempted to the last 2 fires we had. Needless to say, I am thankful I will now have these firestarters to help me along! They make "reuse" of dryer lint, cardboard egg cartons, and if you want, crayons. However if you are unlike most Americans with kids, and don't have a ton of old crayons that can be melted, you can always buy some wax. You can also use either coffee cans (espcially if you do this over an open fire, like a firepit) or like we did, you can use glass jars, which also were recycled from spaghetti sauce, mayonaise, etc....
Fill the jars with the wax and set them in a pot of boilling water. Stir until melted.

Careful not to let water get into the jars. But if you do, just wait for it to harden and then you can pour the water out and melt the wax again.

Once the wax is melted, pour it over the egg cartons/lint. Let dry then just tear off as many as you need to place under the sticks to start the fire with. The cardboard and lint catch fire easily and the wax keeps it going for a long time so as the wood has plenty of time to catch fire.

Just a note, old spatulas, get brittle and break easily! hahaha!

Spare the rod....Soften the blow?

2010-04-22T06:17:00.001-07:00

So i think there is only one thing worse than having to spank your child, having to sit and listen when someone else (ie your spouse) does it!
at the kids school, if you get a mark, it's a warning, two marks, one last chance, three marks and you fill out a think it through and have to have your parents sign it and return it the next day. when they were younger, they had colored fish, one time and one time only did frankie get a bad colored fish, and he got a spanking and grounded from some privelages. this standard is how we have kept him from doing anything bad (enough to get a think it through) in the years since.
until yesterday. 3 marks, and a think it through! he did not want to tell his dad. he knows mom can be a softee on these things, and so does she, which is why dad has to be involved. he asked me not to tell his dad, i said i wasn't going to, he was! so we get home and i call chris upstairs and he tells frankie to hurry up, he had to be on a business call in 4 mins. now as bad as it seems, i am doing a little dance in my head, he can't surely do too much punishing in that short of time. so frankie blurts out what happened. chris informs him he will be back up to deal with him AFTER the call! dunn dunn dunnnnn! so frankie heads to his room, and the tears fall. i go to him, to discuss how just the night before, we discussed, being responsible and accepting the consequences to our actions and not trying to get out of them. he asked shouldn't he get some credit for telling the truth! i said, yes and he will not loose privelages due to that, but he still has consequences. he said, ya it wont' save my butt. i said no, the only to soften that blow would be a couple extra pair of underwear and a soft pair of pants. and i left. well chris gets off his call, and asks for the wooden spoon. he asks how many whacks i recommend. i said no more than three. so he calls frankie downstairs, as he goes by (i'm picturing dead man walking) i see he still has his school pants on, and feel bad that he didn't atleast change pants. i kept waiting to hear the spanks....nothing, i kept waiting to hear the wails....nothing, finally they start to come up, first frankie, and close behind, chris. as frankie is winding the corner, chris says "wait, what do you have on under your pants" frankie mumbles extra underwear, chris is about to add to the spanking, and i interceded and said i told him to and sent frankie on his way. chris is having a hard time not laughing, yet he was mad at me at the same time. i said, i did not interfere with the spanking, i just offered advice! and i told him he needed to now go in and make sure frankie remembers how much he loves him still.... we go in to frankie's room, and chris asks how many extra pairs he has on, and frankie says, three, so he tells him to take off the extra pairs and put them away so not to accumulate extra laundry (we always have tons of laundry! ) so as frankie takes off his school pants we discover, underneath he had also added a pair of fleece pajama bottoms! now we both were having a hard time not laughing! but chris informed both frankie and i, next time it will be a bare butt spanking! :-( i still refuse to feel bad, all i did was offer advice and i'm sticking to that!) however chris did think it odd, he didn't hear the crack sound when he spanked him, and that frankie received the spanking without fighting nor did he cry as much as usual....what's a mom to do, baby steps to letting her kids get what they deserve......

Spring Yard Work

2010-04-10T19:29:00.001-07:00

WARNING! my garden/yard work blogs will probably be boring to most, but i want to keep them so when my kids are older they can look back at our experience while hopefully working in their own yards/gardens! Ahhh! i love spring, however, all the yard work that goes into it.....well i don't mind alot of it while the weather is cool. but it can be expensive and seem to take forever to get all the things done you want to. however for the first time, we have made a list, and prioritized it. for instance, the garage can wait no longer.....as you can see it is in DESPERATE need of new paint....

and the trellises around the pool may come all the way down to be used in the garden and then plant bushes around the bottom, however that decision has not been official yet, due to....the money portion to buy the bushes. however i am happy to say that stupid fence thing around the burner barrel is gone as of today. we will till all that area up (where every year it turns to weeds!) and plant weed and seed grass seed there, and just let it be grass for a few years. however the old clothes line pole, is taking alot of work to remove, seems they dug to china, then poured cement then put the pole in. it is gonna take more time and effort to get that baby out of there!

Frankie and Chris have been working on cutting down the branches in some of the trees to open up more areas that the sun can reach on the ground. i missed getting the shot of frankie in the tree on the ladder and sawing away, but he did and i let him....that's a hard one, i just knew he was gonna fall or cut a finger off! but i am happy to say he did neither and he did a very good job! here he is opening up so the sun can reach the grapes we planted next to the arbor last year. the front ones really took off cuz they were able to get alot of sun, but the ones behind were blocked alot from the tree's branches.

however there was some new growth on all the grape plants, no mater how small!

there also is the work of the garden this year.....last year we left grass in between the rows, something i had read in a book. i really don't care for that book any more, because it caused me tons more work keeping the grass from growing around all the plants! this year, we tilled it all up and expanded. therefor, not knowing how many rows i could fit in and how many plants in the rows, gracie and i measured it all out (where the sticks are) and then we also made a path down the middle (that's what grace is doing) that we will cover with straw and planks to walk on later. we already got the peas in last week, so i still need to plant a few other cold hardy plants then we wait until may, where all the plants i have started in doors will get transplanted and the rest direct sowed.

we wer very pleased with how the cherry tree we planted two years ago shot STRAIGHT up this spring! we thought it was a goner when one of the dogs dug it up that first year! the dog is gone but the tree is luckily still here! lol

the peach tree we planted just last year, got blooms on it this spring, we were extremly suprised to see that, chris said we'll probably get tiny peaches that are all pits but it's still exciting! we still have a LONG way to go in this wonderful yard of ours, but i am glad to have my large (to me) yard to do soooo many things, and plant so many things that we can rely on to feed ourselves instead of settling for high priced, low quality produce that seems to be the norm here lately. it's gonna take us awhile to get everything, but one day, i will garden like it was second nature, can food in my sleep and kill chickens with my eyes closed (but i have to wait until next year for that experience!)

oh the many thoughts in my head!

2010-03-26T20:44:00.000-07:00

where to begin, seems i have had lots going on but not enough of any one thing to post about. first of all, i ordered the homeschool supplies! oh but the butterflies were going in my stomach! first when i notified the school they could give gracie's spot away next year, and then ordering the supplies, were definete "no going back now" moments! ahhhhhh! but i feel very strongly that God has brought us to this point, and so like the saying goes, He will also bring us through it! lol

i think i have secured gracie flute lessons starting in june, so one of the things she was upset she was gonna miss out on from public school has been knocked off the list. so excited to see if she does as well with that, as frankie has with his piano. hopefully she will practice her flute more than he practices his piano though! i was able to pick up a nice flute in great condition last year at a garage sale for $20 and now only have to pay $10 for her lessons!

Most recently (no none of this will probably be in order because my mind does not flow in order) i have thought we needed to add some more recipes into our biweekly menus. my friend jenifer had given me this recipe for italian chicken which i thought was wonderful. posted about it on fb and found out EVERYONE except ME had been using this recipe forever! lol then i discovered it was in a tast of home cookbook! ha! well that got me to looking through recipe books for new ideas, but i always am fearful to try them for fear of wasting all the ingredients if we don't like it. so i decided to hold a "recipe tasting party". i'm gonna have everyone bring their favorite recipe, be it appetizer, main course or desert or a recipe they have never made but thought it sounded good, to this party, along with several copies of the recipe. that way we can all try new recipes without making so many ourselves. i am reallllllllly hoping for a good turn out and good recipes! i mean, what more can you ask for, free food and good company!

on yet another front, i started reading my granny's diaries again. she kept a diary ever day of her life since she was 18. i currently just finished 1942 and am starting in 1943. she also has yearbooks from 1919, 1920 (the year she was born) and 1938, why she had the earlier ones i am not sure, but they sure are fun to look through! anyway, it has renewed my motivation to get back to keeping my own daily journal. especially for things i want to remember but may not be sooo appropriate for on here! lol so far i have kept at it for 13 days! a new record! lol

mailed my mother in law's quilt to her. i am very pleased with how it turned out. she called 2 days in a row to tell me how much she enjoyed it and that it made her feel like chris' dad was back with her. she had gotten rid of the majority of his things last july when he passed. she had forgotten she gave me his shirts to make the quilt with, so she was very pleased to see the quilt. she said she slept better than she had in a long time with that quilt! that alone was worth all the time put in, but then she called back a few days later to tell me she had taken it downstairs (she lives at an assisted living place) to show her friends. she said they all were looking it over and loved it. i laughed and said, well tell them not to look too closesly cuz it's far from perfect. she said, no they did look closely and couldn't get over all the work put in. i said, how many of them had cataracts!? lol she laughed and said all of them! lol then she said they were all asking her if i could make one for them! she told them she didnt' think i had enough squares left over, they said, they would go around collecting them! lol just to hear her laugh and joke and carry on again, now THAT made it really worth it!

well that's all for now folks, i have lots more going on, but the yard and garden are enough for a whole new post! good night for now!

Let's get organized

2010-03-03T07:36:00.000-08:00

a very short but funny blog. so i asked frankie to put the clean towels away in the linen closet. well gracie said she would do it for him (shocker i know!) well she decided she wanted to organize the bathroom. so when i got up this morning, this is what i found..

valentine's day 2010

2010-03-02T17:19:00.000-08:00

ok, let me specify up front, i don't usually decorate for valentine's, st.patrick's day or easter, simply because, i was tired of getting stuff up at the last minute and then having to take it back down. however, i also must fess up, when i watched an episode of jon and kate plust 8, it did seem like so much fun for the kids and she really didn't do that much in the way of decorating. so when out shopping with my friend, i saw a packet of v-day decorations, all in one thing, for $10 smackaroos! ok, i thought, i can do THAT! and i got each family member a little "love" to wake up to. again, maintaining it all in the dinning room. most people's kitchens are their center of activity, well my kitchen is too small, so the dinning room is ours.

Gracie got a picture framed thing i made for her of hunter beans, plus a valentine's day waterglobe (as we have started a new tradition of collecting water globes, some chocolates and a card from nana and a card from gran and grandad.

Frankie got his globe, his cards, and a mini pot of flowers to grow, some aqua globes that he has wanted for a long time and some andes mints (since most boxed chocolates have nuts!) and

chris got a card from me with a gamestop gift card and some of his favorite chocolates taped on top. the kids got me a little box of chocolates and we all enjoyed some krispy kreme doughnuts. all in all, it was fun, easy and i loved that i could take down the decorations the next day and put them back in thier little package for next year! now that's what i call decorating! i may even decorate for easter at this rate!

Gracie's Birthday Details

2010-02-26T05:18:00.000-08:00

Gracie's Birthday~~

Well let me tell you, every year on her birthday, it snows, and it did not disappoint this year! it started snowing that evening and continued well into the night. i know because i spent the middle of the night decorating and wrapping cuz she went to bed so late! i did discover a neat setting on the camera though that allowed me to take some cool pics of it coming down at night! by morning i could barely open the door, and yes those are still christmas lights on the railing, and no they still are not down yet! ha!

every year the night before their birthday, i deocorate the dinning room so when they wake up their special day begins right away. i love their reactions when they wake up but it's not like they dont' know what's gonna happen. these decorations usually stay up for the week, partly so it stays special for that long and partly because i dont' feel like taking them down. but then valentines comes around so i have to.

Shh! sleeping beauty is resting! i had to decorate very quietly as she decided to sleep out on the couch that night!

gracie wanted a dog cake, but the only ones we could find were little kid dogs like blues clues, so my friend suggested a picture of a dog scanned on, which immediately broought to mind the pic of gracie and hunter. what a neat idea! marsh did an incredible job! i only wished i knew they would use color and i would have asked for blue as that is her favorite color.

she had asked for many many things for her birthday, so i narrowed the list down and got her the dog magazines she wanted, a camera (so she would leave ours alone), a "bop it", and hula hoop to get her off her duff , and a wii game, that i though would get her off her duff but it's not exactly a move around one, more of a sit and controller one, and not a good one at that! (wish you could take those back!) she also got lots of money from family that she is spending very carefully!

now looking back at those gifts, almost a month later, she had definetly played with the hula hoop, a little bit with the bop it (however frankie finds it great fun!) hasn't hardly looked at the magazines, and takes her camera with her whenever she remembers it. however the money has given her great pleasure in spending, she has been pretty smart and wise, which i am thankful for. she certainly is growing up.

Yesterday

2010-02-05T18:49:00.001-08:00

ok now that i have my tribute about gracie, i can dish a short blog about yesterday, when she did not think me so wonderful. first let me tell you, i had been running from the time i dropped the kids off at school at 7:40 until later that evening. anyway, i sent gracie to school, knowing i would likely have to go back for her. so i got all her birthday shopping done, going back and forth up us31 since the stores all opened at different hours. i searched and searched for the right gifts for her. i finally get her picked up, and we had to go pick up chris at the airport. now anyone that knows me, knows, i hate driving to the airport, i am not a fan of driving on the interstate period, or leaving my safe little southside! so i was nervous anyway! i also was sporting my new glasses so i could see the signs better, but they were seeming weird, had a hard time focusing with them. soooo as we get closer and i am trying to concentrate and white knuckling it the whole time, there is miss chatty cathy, chirp, chirp, chirping. i said grace, i need you to be quiet, i hate this drive......quiet for about 1 minute, seriously, i think she is incapable of being quiet, "why don't you like this, why are you nervous, it makes me nervous too" etc..... so i said again, gracie.....shhhh! getting closer and needing to watch signs, "mom did you know trees put off oxygen, and the more trees cut down, the less oxygen" gracie....please..... "mom do you think flowers and grass put off oxygen too, like trees? " i find myself actually trying to decide the answer and about miss a lane i needed to be in!! i said grace, realllllly, i can' t think about that right...."mom you need to go there! (pointing her arm across my face) it says garage!" ok MAYBE i would have seen the sign if i had not been thinking about if flowers and grass put off oxygen or not! so luckily, thanks to grace, we find our way there and she says, " your gonna let dad drive home right?"

so fast forward, we went back to the school to pick up frankie from choir practice. chris goes in to get him and she is trying to climb up front and i am yelling at her to stay in the back, she finally heads back to the back, in the process, she bends her finger backward and hollars and starts to cry....now you mothers all know the difference between an i am seriously hurt cry and an, ouch that smarts and i am mad cry. hers was the latter. so i said, see you should have listened to me, to which her shocked reply was "WHAT KIND OF MOTHER ARE YOU!!!!" i said one with a child who should have listened to me! so much for mom of the year.....maybe mommy dearest!

My little girl

2010-02-05T15:00:00.000-08:00

My little girl is turning 9 tommorow! so i decided to take the time to look back at all her birthdays and see how she has grown!

Grace Ellain Toth came into this world on Feb. 6, 2001. Planned C-section, we picked that date because that was my great grandmother, Grace's birthday. We were scheduled to go in first thing that morning, but due to a lady who was having triplets needing to go first, we got bumped to the afternoon. Well, no food for me, meant no food for her, so when she came out, she was MAD!!! And she let us all know it. The nurse said, " I know your going to nurse her, but can we go ahead and give her a bottle to calm her down"!!! lol i was not even off the operating table yet! lol She came in at 6# 1/2 oz, and 18" long. But she did not stay little long.....

1 year old!Gracie shared her birthday month with her beloved Bumpa. She was actually "due" on his birthday, but was not able to last that long. but we often would go back to ohio in feb to celebrate their birthday's together. She was his only grandaughter, and he enjoyed her so much.

2 yrs old! Ever the fashioniesta, my darling daugher turned two in incredible style! lol she got a package of barretts for one of her presents and she had to have every single one displayed in her beautiful hair! Even though you hear rumors of the terrible twos, i must say, she had not really hit them. she was still a darling little girl!

By the time she turned 3, i would say the diva in her had shown itself! it took a little more time and work to bring out the darling in her! but it was totally worth it when we did. she was very into being a little lady, we started wearing our pearl necklace that we never wanted to take off, we became aware of how cute we could look in cutesy outfits and we knew when we were being adored! however, we did not start off the day looking like a princess!

along came the big 4! note we are still wearing our pearls, i believe we had to get a second set cuz the first set was worn so often they finally broke, so grandma debbie got us a new set. miss grace was very into wearing dresses and tights at this point. we are still very much a girl and very much into jewelry, make-up drawing and since birth, talking!!! what fun mama has buying clothes for her little doll!

Half a decade! We celebrated year 5 with a little dress up party. she had many of her princess friends come and one little prince. she was the perfect little hostess with the mostess. she was very polite and had alot of fun. she started kindergarten later that year after 2 years in preschool, where she was able to be a peer model in the same rise class frankie had gone to at RPE.

Age 6! i really think this is the year she stared looking older. she had us cut off her looonnngg hair that was down past her little tush! she was realllly into clothes at this point. mom had to be pretty thrifty to keep up with the demand! lol which is why, for the longest time she thought "clearance" was a store! she would say, oh mom got this at the clearance. :-) we started having a bit more of a temper around now. a little more moody. mommy started back to work later that year and she did not appreciate the lack of me not always being there whenever she wanted. however she was still my baby, and always will be.

7 years old? where has the time gone? she grew her bangs out, boy was that a process! but i was torn between if i liked it or not. definetely like her hair long. she is more dramatic than ever. concerning herself with boys more and who is popular and who isn't. all things i wish she wouldn't worry about at this young of an age. mom and family had a hard time with mom not being available 24/7 so i started working from home. everyone was much happier. she has learned how to spell very well, and shows great promise in her drawing skills. i think she could possibly be an author one day and draw her own illustrations. she is very talented. she has a heart that can melt you, but she can be meaner than a snake if the mood strikes her. but overall, i'm very proud of who she is trying to become.

i have no pictures of her 8th birthday because, she was sick. so we rescheduled her birthday party for the following week and guess what....she was sick again. so we decided not to try having it in the middle of winter as everyone kept getting sick. however some really sweet friends brought her presents over anyway and made her get well cards. after that we decided we would only have parties on the milestone birthdays, like 13 and 16 etc... but she has never complained about it. if given enough time she is really good about rolling with the punches. every year i see her striving and trying to become a lady of excellence. i see her faith in God growing stronger every year and her decision making maturing. she still has her mama's temper but we BOTH are working on that. she is still my chatty cathy, but i love alot of what she has to say, her thoughts, her ideas, and sometimes just a silly comment or observation! but basically, i am soo glad she is mine, and that God blessed me with my little girl. i have learned alot of who I am, good and bad by watching her, and hopefully the two of us can both grow into wonderful women one day! gracie girl, i love you with all my heart! happy birthday doodlebug!

Strike while the iron is hot....

2010-02-02T07:11:00.000-08:00

ok here is a short one, but one that must be for the record.....sunday morning, we are all trying to get ready for church. healthy or not, sunday's we have cinnamon rolls, i want it to be a sweet tradition, that they look forward to on sunday's. so i had made the rolls, made sure the kids were getting ready, chris had gotten his shower and turned my curling iron on for me, took my shower, was putting on the umpteenth top, and deciding i still didn't like the way it looked. frankie has been playing with that stupid simon! he has recently been able to get him out and let him stand on his hand, his head etc.... well simon decided to fly into the bathroom and stand on something up high. frankie climbed up to get him and did not pay attention to the curling iron that had been on for atleast 30 min on the counter. he slid his foot over and....well you can imagine the rest..... so here we sat, none of us ready to go, with 20 min before we have to leave, my hair wet as can be, and we are having to doctor up this foot and decide if he can wear a shoe or not and if we can make it for sunday school, or should one of us stay home and baby his foot...etc... anytime things like this happen on a sunday, i always think about years ago when my friend jill said, it seems like satan is always working hard to cause problems before you go to church, arguments, or whatever, so you are not thinking about what you should when you get to church! so i always try to keep that in mind and refocus. refocus we did, AND we were able to leave for sunday school (albeit with wet hair) and get there right on time! frankie ended up fine, and went in a slipper on one foot but was running and playing by the time church had ended, so i am glad we did not let it keep us from going.

**another side note, isn't it funny the things from your past that stick with you, that at the time, you don't realize you will refer back to over and over. makes you wonder what things from now and in the future will stick with you and your kids!