October = Fun

I have been pretty lax on my blogging lately. So now I'm going to hit you with a great big post full of lots of pictures. Because I know you can NEVER get enough of my cute family.

There's also a short history lesson at the end. I promise, it's short, and pretty interesting too!

Puckey can go from sweet and smiley

To Grouchy

To downright scary in 2.3 seconds!

(I left the red-eye in because it just makes the picture that much more "scary")

My weak attempt at outdoor fall decorating

But God ALWAYS out-does me!

Puckey, it's a Pumpkin Patch, not a PUPPY Patch!

Nans and Jib picking out a pumpkin

Jibby in love...

Daddy and Jib with her cool white pumpkin

Sometimes they're HAPPY...

Sometimes they're sad...

Bubber is always known for his keen fashion sense...

(note the knee high socks & shorts combo)

Bug, Me, and Nans after completing our Mini-Caramel Apple project

The finished product

Puckey looking longingly at the apples...

The coffee mug my sweet friend Susan gave me for my birthday

(It says "A friend loves at all times... Proverbs 17:17)

Hangin out with Daddy on the couch

This is how we found Puckey and The Jib sleeping last night before we went to bed

(What you can't see is the total havoc they wreaked in the rest of their room)

And last, but certainly not least, it's "That 70's Dinner"...

Boy do I ever L-O-V-E my 70's Pyrex.

Oh, and because I have a million and ten things to do tomorrow (of which I'm hoping to get at least two accomplished), I wanted to write quickly about this because I found it interesting and thought you might too.

This morning, while waiting on the guy from the phone company to hook up our "new and improved" phone and internet service, I was listening to R.C. Sproul (he does a radio program called "Renewing your mind") and heard this little tidbit of information about the "birth" of Halloween.

It is common knowledge (at least I think it is) that Halloween (Or "All Hallow's Eve") falls the day before "All Saints Day". What I didn't know is that All Hallow's Eve has origins in the Roman Catholic church! Apparently, from what R.C. Sproul said today, in the middle ages the members of the Roman Catholic church believed that the surest way of keeping Satan away was to make fun of him. They believed that if they hit him where it hurt the most (his pride), that he would do just as the Bible says (Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7, NIV) and leave them alone. The people would dress up in ridiculous costumes mocking the devil, not because that's how they thought he looked, but because he is described as this in 2 Corinthians 11:14 "And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light".

I thought that was rather interesting to know. Another thing that I found interesting is that on October 31 ,1517, Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses on the door of a Wittenburg, Germany church. This list is said to have been the start of the Protestant Reformation, which changed Christianity forever.

See, my blog is fun AND informative, all at the same time! Aren't you glad?!?

So many posts, so little time...

Since you've all missed me SOOOO much over the last few weeks, I've decided to just overload you with posts! ha ha ha

The girls seem like they are growing by leaps and bounds! I can't believe all of the new words The Jib says now. She's SO funny - especially since all of her words that end in an "s" sound she uses a "t" sound, and when she says "yes", she bobs her head up and down and just says "S-s-s-s-s-s-" (I guess it would be better if I had it on film, but my mother in law has the video camera. I should get that back from her)

Puckey is doing well with the potty training. Last night she actually pooped on the potty, and then told me, "I pooped big just like Daddy!" Ande got a laugh out of that one.

Bubber has his second football game on Thursday. I'm still trying to figure out if I'm going to go. I may have to ask my mother in law if she can babysit the girls, so I don't have to wrangle them on the bleachers (not to mention the fact that I'd probably get charged to bring them in...)

Bug is looking forward to starting band. She will be playing clarinet this year. I hope she enjoys it - music is such a fun thing to learn. I actually had a dream that she was in marching band, and I was helping teach the kids how to march. (I was in marching band in high school) It was a little weird.

Nans started at her new school yesterday, and she said she liked it pretty well. I think she'll do fine once she makes a couple of new friends. We still haven't worked out how we are going to make the pick-up on our weekends. I used to pick her up from school on our weekends, but that's not really going to work out anymore.

I'm finally getting baptized on Saturday. I don't know what's taken me so long (I gave my life to Christ over 6 years ago), but I'm excited about it, and am thrilled that Bubber and Bug will get to be there too. It's going to be fun, too, since it's at our Pastor's house, and we're having a picnic/pool party afterwards. Hopefully the weather will hold out for us.

My brother in law interviewed for a job here in MI yesterday, but he's not sure if he's going to take it. It would be a pretty big pay cut for him, so I think he's thinking it over. As much as I'd love for them to move here, I'd hate for him to take the job and then have a hard time financially. (It's not that the pay is really that bad, but they're used to living on a lot more)

Well, I guess that's it for now. I'll probably post at least once or twice more today (aren't you lucky?).

For now, it's back to the grind...LOL

Just a bunch of stuff

In order to get my mind off of needlessly worrying about finances, I have been trying to pay more attention to the good stuff going on in our house....

Who's been sleeping in my bed?

Yes, that's a sock monkey (made by my mom) that Puckey tucked into our bed the other day.

Daddy is The Jib's new cupholder

This means that The Jib is finally "bottle free"! No more baba's. Whoo-HOO!!

Videos we've been watching:

Yeah, the big kids are LOVING this one (read with MUCH sarcasm). So far, Puckey has watched it 5 times, but doesn't have any interest in going potty. Apparently she's just watching it for the entertainment value?

School House Rock is pretty much the best I know of...and this set includes ALL of them, including your favorites like "Conjunction Junction" and "I'm Just a Bill." (You can thank me later for getting those songs stuck in your head) We told Ande's mom we'd like her to buy this one for Puckey for her birthday.

Ande and I have spent more time talking to each other lately. I mean, we have always talked, but it's usually about the kids or whatever. Recently, our conversations have held more depth (and sometimes laughter) than usual. It's pretty awesome.

The Jib is learning more and more new words every day. We've added:

• "Becko" (You're welcome) It's so cute, because she knows how to use it properly.
• Book
• Down
• Home
• Potty
• Puckey
• Ride
• Bike
• Outside
• Cold
• Pool
• "Muck" (Milk) - she can also do the sign language sign for it

Just yesterday, The Jib walked into our room, and she looked out our french doors into the backyard. You can see our pool from there, and she pointed and said, "Cold pool!" I love it!

Puckey and The Jib got a "new" ride a couple of weeks ago, courtesy of a local yard sale.

We went for a family bike ride yesterday. I got to try out my "new" bike. My mother in law gave me her bike, which is sorta like riding a lazy boy chair! (Pretty comfy).

However, even with all the comfort of the bike, I was left wondering just when I got so old and out of shape. My backside and thighs were feeling pretty rough by the time we got back home! I guess I'm going to have to start riding a little more often.

Bubber is now participating in "two-a-days" for football, which is just wearing him right out. He seems to like it, though, so I'm happy!! (Although he's eating us out of house and home!!)

Bug is excited about starting Middle School in a few weeks...although I think I'm going to have to start making her get up early pretty soon to get used to it. Right now it's after 10:00am and she's still asleep. (Meanwhile I've been up since about 6:45am)

Nans should be coming for a week at the end of this week or the beginning of next - it seems like FOREVER since we've seen her! We'll get to go school shopping with Grammy (my mother in law) while Nans is home, too. Always have fun doing that!

The bible study I've been doing is going well - it's still just the two of us, but I feel like I've learned some new stuff (and some stuff about myself) that I wouldn't have learned otherwise.

Thanks for all of the prayers you guys have sent my way - it's been effective! I feel more at ease than I did before, and things are looking better all the time. (Maybe part of my problem was hormones - you all know how that goes!)

I'm such a loser

So, in the last 2 weeks, I entered Amanda's Pay-it-forward contest, and when I LOST that one, I entered Amanda's friend, Jenn's, Pay-it-forward contest. I lost that one, too!!! MAN!! The good news is that my friend Cindy won Jenn's contest, so now SHE'LL have to have one. Maybe I'll win?!?! I might have to just continue following the chain of Pay-it-forward contests until I win!! (Because I hate to lose!)

On a completely unrelated note, Ande and I took Nans, Puckey, and The Jib to see a magic show at the Flint Public Library last night. It featured Doug Scheer, from "Scheer Genius" Productions. I have to say, I was very impressed. Mr. Scheer was very funny, had a great rapport with the kids, and was really good at what he does! If you are at all involved in scheduling assemblies for your children's school or fun activities for the children at your church, this is something you should at least check into! There are several different shows to choose from (we saw "Adventures in Reading", you know, since we were at the LIBRARY). All of the kids in the audience had a great time, as did their parents. Best part of the whole thing? Admission was FREE!

Moving on...in addition to not letting Ande push Puckey on the swings anymore, he is also no longer allowed to use the hair clippers unattended. Last week he gave himself a haircut (which he does every 2 weeks or so), and then decided to trim his eyebrows. Except he forgot the blade guard. So his eyebrows were nearly non-existent for a few days. I was reminded of the episode of "Friends" when Joey got his eyebrow waxed and then had to have Chandler fix the other one...

No, I seriously thought I was going to have to get him a set of these:
These babies are multi-purpose, too!!! Notice the packaging shows several different options. I'm digging the Tom Selleck-style moustache...LOL

There ARE actually eyebrow kits out there (I'm guessing for cancer or alopecia (sorry if I spelled it wrong) patients), which is a really cool product idea.

And for those of you who are wondering, YES, Ande's eyebrows are growing back in nicely...

New Updates...

So this weekend Ande and I went to my cousin's wedding. My baby cousin. Who really shouldn't be old enough to be getting married. But he IS, and he DID. You see, I forever think of him as this silly little boy who used to follow his older brother and sister (and me) around, begging to play with us. Of course, being kids, we pretty much ignored him, or would only let him play so we could torture him...LOL

Anyway, Stan and Lindsay were married this weekend, and it was a beautiful wedding. There was a little bit of awkwardness when we were seated at the same table as my mom (who's in denial) & my stepdad (who won't speak to me). I tried to make the best of it, but I was pretty relieved that Ande and I had to leave fairly early in the evening to pick up the kids.

One great update came from that night, though - my Aunt Kathy was there. I previously blogged about her here, here, and here. She is still pretty thin (she lost about 30lbs while she was sick), but she was smiling and said she feels pretty good. She told me she spent 46 days in the hospital, 21 of which she was in a coma. Her pulmonologist told her that he had not thought she would survive. At that point, I told her that there had been many, many people praying for her, and she made the remark, "It must have worked!" It would be great if you would continue to pray for her salvation, and for me to have more opportunities to talk to her about it.

Everybody seems to have recovered from the "funk" that took out Puckey, The Jib, and Ande last week. I am SO thankful that I got away with only a mild sore throat...

Ande's job has another change, starting today. His route (the car dealerships he regularly visits) has been changed. It's a little sad, because he had made a few new friends on his route, but it's also very good in that he will now be within about 5 minutes of home ALL DAY EVERY DAY! Each dealership he has now is located within about a 5 mile radius of our house. Closer location equals less miles to drive equals less gas to buy! It also means he can come home for lunch, so that will save on "lunch money".

The kids are getting ready for camp...Bubber leaves on Saturday, and Bug and Nans leave 2 weeks after that. I'm praying that they have a great time, and wonderful fellowship with Godly men and women who will help them build a better relationship with Christ.

Speaking of building a better relationship with Christ...a friend of mine from church, Susan, has asked me to do a Bible study with her. We decided on Tuesday evenings, as that's one of the few nights I don't have other obligations. If any of you local readers are interested in checking it out, we're going to meet at church (don't have a time ironed out yet, but I'm sure it will be reasonable). It's a Beth Moore study on Daniel. The book is $15, and I believe we will have a DVD series that will go along with the study. Anyway, if you are interested, leave me a comment or send me an email to let me know!! We haven't officially started yet, so there's still time to get involved!

Another cool thing relating to building a relationship with Christ - a guy who works for one of the dealerships that was on Ande's old route was in a triathlon this weekend. Ande has been sharing his faith with Trevor, and Trevor has been pretty receptive. So, as a way of showing how much Ande (and the rest of our family) support him, we went on Sunday morning to encourage Trevor and some of his co-workers and family who participated in the race. Trevor was absolutely bowled over that we would come down to support him, so I'm really glad that we went.

I was amazed at some of the people I saw who were in the race. There were some people who were pretty old (I heard the oldest participant was 73), and one kid JUST met the age requirement (13). Some people were extremely fit, while others looked quite out of shape. I have to give everyone who was involved credit. I got winded carrying The Jib back to the car when we were leaving, I can't imagine doing the swimming, biking, and running...

Also, thanks to all of you for the compliments on my hair!!! I'm thrilled with it, and your comments have only made me feel that much more happy about it! For Cindy, I go to CC & Co. in Fenton, and have Bridget Shea cut my hair. I've known her since I was 11 (wow, that's 22 years!), and she is definitely my stylist of choice. She's also a Christian, which is an added bonus...

Floods and Broken Power Cords and Holes in Pools, OH MY!!

Yes, so those three events, along with many others, have contributed to my absence from blogland over the last week or so.

First, the "GREAT FLOOD of '08" hit. It was Friday, June 6. Bubber had gotten suspended from school for 2 days because he called one of his teachers "retarded". Well, that wasn't the ONLY reason, more like the straw that broke the camel's back. Anyway, I had to go to his school to pick up his assignments, and had to get into his locker to get a couple of books. In his locker, there were about 8 or 9 sweatshirts (which I hadn't seen in MONTHS, to give you an idea of how long they'd been there). So later that afternoon, I asked Bubber to put the ones that stayed here (about half of them belonged at his dad's house) in the basement so I could wash them. So, being the "obedient" (read with a splash of sarcasm) son, he stood at the top of the basement stairs and tossed the sweatshirts down. They splashed when they hit the floor. Not good. Apparently the power cord for the sump pump had a small cut in it, which was causing it to short out. Which eventually caused the breaker in the circuit box to flip off. Which in turn cut the power to our back-up sump pump (say that ten times fast). The water table is pretty high here, so it doesn't take long for the water to start rising. Fortunately, it was only about 3 inches deep at it's deepest point when we discovered the problem. We got all of the water drained, and spent the next day hauling everything out of the basement to dry. We didn't really lose anything important, as most of the stuff I had down there was packed up in plastic containers. Unfortunately, we (still) have all of that stuff sitting on our front porch, so it looks like we either A) are having a yard sale, or B) got evicted. I want to paint the walls in the basement before we put that stuff back down there, so hopefully in the next couple of days I can get that done.

Our next incident was on Saturday, June 7th. We had a tornado watch (or warning, I can't ever remember which is which), plus severe thunderstorm watches and warnings, so we were in the basement. (Yes, the basement that had flooded the previous day). To help keep track of the weather, I brought the laptop down there. It was running on the battery and we have wireless internet, so I didn't have to worry about being electrocuted or anything... After the watch (or warning) was over, I just put the computer back on it's stand and didn't think much more about it. Then Ande wanted to watch a movie or something, and noticed that it was still unplugged. When he went to plug it in, Ande noticed that the pin inside the connector for the power cord (where it plugs into the computer) was bent. In an attempt to "unbend" it, Ande broke it. (OOPS) So...we had to get a new power cord. (THANKS MOM!! Ande's mom bought it for us. She spoils us...) We didn't get the cord in the mail until yesterday, but it's (obviously) working well for us.

Last Wednesday (the 11th), I finally got to visit with my friends Amanda, Cindy, and Marcy. Amanda was visiting from Oklahoma, Cindy is Amanda's mother-in-law, and Marcy is a mutual friend of all of ours. So we (and a total of 9 kids, including Amanda's cousin(?)) met at a local park for a few hours. I'll be posting some pictures of that later. It was fun to get to visit with other moms and get out of the house for a while!

On Friday (the 13th), Nans came to stay the weekend for Father's Day. On Saturday, I decided to (finally) get our pool up. It's just one of those easy-set ones, but it works nice for the kids to splash and play in. So Nans helped me get it ready to fill, and we turned on the hose. A little while later I went out to check on it, and noticed a puddle next to the pool. There was a hole in it. GREAT. We had to empty out the water that remained in the pool and see if we could patch it. We had promised Nans that we could go to the library, and we were also supposed to take Ande's dad to dinner that night, so we got ready and headed out the door. We made a stop at a local pool/spa place and bought a patch kit, then headed to the library. Ande took The Jib upstairs, while I helped Nans & Puckey find some books. The girls found what they wanted, and we headed upstairs to find Ande and The Jib. I stepped out of the elevator just in time to see Ande frantically trying to get the bathroom door open while The Jib was throwing up all over him. Not good. They got cleaned up and we headed back home. We had to cancel our dinner plans, so we ended up watching a couple of videos and hanging out on the couch for the night.

Father's Day was pretty uneventful - The Jib was feeling better, so we went to church and out to lunch with Ande's dad afterward. When we got home, Ande patched the pool and we started the process of filling it. (The patch seems to be working like a champ - the pool is now full and there seems to be no leaking! YEAH!!) Later in the afternoon, we had to make the first of what will likely be our usual Sunday afternoon trips to meet Nans' mom to drop her off. It was about a 140 mile round trip "adventure". Poor Jib cried a good portion of the trip (the sun was shining on her face, and it was pretty hot in the car because the A/C is broken). I'm definitely going to have to get a window shade for her...

Yesterday, Bubber had his first football practice AND a baseball game. It's going to be a busy summer. Bubber's team won the game by 5 runs, so that was a good thing. I know he likes being on a winning team! (Don't we all)

This morning, I woke up to Puckey crying...and throwing up. Yep, whatever The Jib had, Puckey's got it now. I'm just hoping that the rest of the kids don't get it! So I got her cleaned up, and she went back to sleep. Hopefully she'll be back to normal soon. Right now, The Jib and I are the only ones up (and it's 9:00AM!). We're watching a little "Old School Sesame Street", and I'll be making some breakfast pretty soon. I'm thinking pancakes...YUMMY.

Oh, and two last things...

Ande found out last week that his pay structure is changing. There will be no more commission per car, only an hourly rate. His hourly rate DID go up, but it's not going to make up the difference. He's also been working a shorter number of hours (for example, he only had enough work to last him 3.5 hours last Friday), so our income will be taking a major hit. If you could keep Ande's job situation in your prayers, we'd appreciate it. His company anticipates that business will pick up again soon (only a couple of months ago, Ande could work 12 hours a day and still have plenty to do). On a positive note, we will soon have health insurance!! It's been almost a year since we've had it. Thanks to God for His watchful eye on our health, we've not had any serious illnesses/injuries that required a trip to the hospital!

Also, Tricia Lawrenson has been diagnosed with Post-Transplant Lymphoma. Apparently this is a very treatable form of cancer that occurs in transplant patients. Please keep them in your prayers.

What you've ALL been waiting for.....

Okay, okay, so maybe it's only what I've been waiting for. The girls' room is FINISHED. DONE. FINI.

Pictures? Of course!!! (Drumroll please....)

This is what it looked like before:

And after:

Here's a "before" picture of the desk chair that I bought at Goodwill for $2.99:

And after with a few coats of paint and a newly covered seat:

Bug was practically beside herself with excitement when she saw it (with furniture) yesterday. Nans hasn't seen it yet, but will this weekend. I think she'll really like it too. Now if I can only get them to KEEP IT THAT CLEAN....

Is Sissys' room sick, Mama?

Yes, this is the question that Puckey asked the other day when I took the following picture.

I told her, "Yes, Sissys' room IS sick, I think maybe it threw up!"

You might wonder why on earth I would be taking pictures of Bug & Nans' room. Well, the EXTREME ROOM MAKEOVER has finally begun! After weeks of waiting for the girls to get in gear and clean their room so I could paint it, I gave up and cleaned it myself. It's amazing how big the room is without all of their CRAP stuff in it.

So the first thing I needed to do was a little spackling...okay, a LOT of spackling. I think the boys who once inhabited this room must have had SOMETHING hanging on just about every available inch of wall space.

Next comes the primer.

Okay, now here's the main color, "Honey Flower".

And finally, the accent color, "Antigua Sunset".

Looks pretty good, if I do say so myself! My next step is cleaning the carpet. I'd just hire someone to do it, but A) It costs WAY too much, and B) I'd rather do it a room at a time when I can get all of the furniture out before cleaning the carpet, so the WHOLE ROOM gets cleaned.

I can't wait to get all the the girls' furniture back in place, and don't worry, I'll post pictures of the "finished product" when I get that far!