WILKINSON FAMILY

One of my fav. soups

2011-07-08T05:55:00.000-07:00

this recipe is from: http://www.tuscanreci0pes.com/recipes/olive-garden-zuppa-toscana.html
Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana
This is a much requested recipe on the site given its name! Someone who used to work at the Olive
Garden sent in the original recipe and I've adapted it to serve just 6-8. Try it since it is really yummy!
To be honest, this recipe isn't very "Tuscan". It is a very good soup and hits the spot on cold winter
days. I've included this and a few other Olive Garden-inspired recipes on the site for all of our visitors
that enjoy eating at the restaurant chain. In my opinion, making these recipes at home makes them even
better than the ones you eat at the restaurant! :)
Makes: 6-8 servings
INGREDIENTS
· 1 lb ground Italian sausage
· 1½ tsp crushed red peppers
· 1 large diced white onion
· 4 Tbsp bacon pieces
· 2 tsp garlic puree
· 10 cups water
· 5 cubes of chicken bouillon
· 1 cup heavy cream
· 1 lb sliced Russet potatoes, or about 3 large potatoes
· ¼ of a bunch of kale
1. Sauté Italian sausage and crushed red pepper in a large pot. Drain excess fat, refrigerate while
you prepare other ingredients.
2. In the same pan, sauté bacon, onions and garlic for approxiamtly 15 mins. or until the onions are
soft.
3. Mix together the chicken bouillon and water, then add it to the onions, bacon and garlic. Cook
until boiling.
4. Add potatoes and cook until soft, about half an hour.
5. Add heavy cream and cook until thoroughly heated.
6. Stir in the sausage.
7. Add kale just before serving. Delicious!
Buon appetito!

new family photo

2011-04-29T06:59:00.001-07:00

we decided to take a new family photo when we went home to alabama for Easter. More on Easter later. so here is new photo.

Kid demonstration on how big the new washer is

2011-04-17T16:10:00.000-07:00

So a month or two ago, we before we got our taxes back, we were discussing what to do with it. Then a sweet couple decided to repay what they had borrowed from us. We got the money to lend them from the gift they gave us last year to help us get a washer that we never bought. follow, yeah me neither.
ANYWAY,
Toby and I had talked about getting a new washer since our xl capacity died last yr. and the only thing we could find under $100 was a washer with sm./med loads. Needless to say that caused an even larger back load in laundry than we normally had. So since that sweet couple gave us some money, then Toby decided that since we would get a larger washer that we needed a larger dryer to handle the washer load. I was ecstatic just to get a washer. I needed a place to put the set on layaway until our taxes came in and that was Sears. I needed a top loading washer so that I could soak clothes. I did a bunch of research and decided to not get a matching set, but they are the same brand and just as big if not bigger than current front load washers. I love them.
Kenmore elite 5.0 cu. ft. washer
Kenmore Elite 7.5 cu. Ft. dryer

The kids decided to see how big the washer was compared to them. So here are our two oldest testing it out with a comparison shot of how tall wayne is next to Toby. We can even shut the lid on wayne. lol

Because nail polish is better than lipstick

2011-04-17T16:09:00.001-07:00

Atlanta Temple open to PUBLIC

2011-04-04T07:19:00.000-07:00

If you ever wondered what the inside of a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS/Mormon) Temple looks like, here is your opportunity. The Atlanta, Ga Temple is open to the general public for viewing from April 9-23rd. It is FREE, www.lds.org/reservations.

Testing of the ditz...uh, I mean for dizziness

2010-09-28T11:47:00.000-07:00

well i went and got tests done this past Thurs. They checked my hearing, my audio nerves, & my optical nerves. they put headphones on me and checked if i heard the beeps at diff. decibels and in which ear. Then they put these electrical cords that make clicking noises in my ears and turned off the lights and i had to shut my eyes until they turned back on the lights. After that they put these massive special goggles on me that check my optical nerves as I chased a ball of light up and down a bar with my eyes. Then they closed the goggles and blew cold air into each ear and later warm air into each ear. finally they laid my head off the edge of the "bed", turned my head to the left then the right and then sit up (this is the adjustment they always tell me to do).
All of that checks to make sure that my audio nerves work the same on both sides, that my optical nerves both work the same, that there are not any tumors on either set of nerves, that I do not have Meniere's disease. Frankly they don't know what's wrong with me since everything came back clear. The ENT just told me to do the adjustment off the edge of my bed every other day and if I still have probs. over the next several weeks then I could give him a call.
I thought that things were clearing up because things were a little better by Fri. and almost completely gone on Sat. then Sun. I woke up and couldn't walk straight or anything for the first 2 hrs. I was up. so that's where I am, still no one has a clue and I still get dizzy with my chin to chest, head all the way back, looking back and over left shoulder, and when i bend down to pick up stuff. still going to chiropractor for adjustments to spine. oh well, on to a new dr. and maybe more test.

UPDATE ON GRACE!

2010-09-25T16:48:00.000-07:00

Grace's surgery went well. Head patched, now has a small plate in it! There's a small chance of seizures but she will probably go home tomorrow. THANK YOU for the many prayers and well wishes!! =]

PLEASE KEEP MY NIECE IN YOUR PRAYERS!!

2010-09-24T13:46:00.000-07:00

today is Sept. 24th, 2010
Grace (7yr.) fell off her bike in her driveway yesterday and has a fractured, partially concave skull (compound depressed skull fracture). No bleeding in the brain but there is air pocket. The major concern is that something punctured her head and into her skull when she fell, so not sure if any foreign element is in there or not. There is also a concern about whether the fractured pieces have penetrated the membranes of the brain. They are trying to fit her into surgery today. They will elevate the concave parts of her skull and clean out the area especially since there is a puncture. As brain surgery goes, this is very low risk. It is still a very major deal. Depending on the fractured pieces, they could put pins in the skull to keep it together or just let it heal on it's own.

Elizabeth, her mom, has been trying to keep it together for her. They live in Missouri away from all family. Elizabeth's mom, who norm. lives with them just left for Germany a little while ago to go help out a daughter-in-law, while her son is deployed for a few months.

My brother (Royal) is almost home from the Netherlands, where he was sent for a work project.

Our church and her friends have been very helpful esp. with taking care of the other kids. Her sister, Nicole, is flying in. I think her step-mother is driving in too. My mom & my sister, JaNae are driving in also. Please join our family in keeping them in our prayers.

So ms. Grace ,the injured 7 yr old, asked if her cousins knew about her accident. This little girl is very matter of fact, level headed, tries to be in charge of the situation. Weeeell, she told g'ma, "TELL MY COUSINS NOT TO PANIC!" LOL!

"Our Home Kindergarten"

2010-09-17T12:31:00.000-07:00

Okay, here it is.

If you have young children of pre-school or kindergarten age... or have some friends with little ones who are interested in home schooling them or just working with them at home instead of Kindergarten but don't know where to start...

This is what they need:

http://www.KindergartenAtHome.com

I love, LOVE this curriculum/e-book! I just bought it the other day and my kids (Talia & Kaiya) are having a blast. I wanted to share this link with you guys because the homeschool site I got it from is only letting people buy it for $7.99 until this Sun. (Sept. 19th) at midnight, that's for a full year curriculum and 3 added e-books with added resources to boot. After Sun. the price goes up to their reg. price of somewhere between $27-$47. They even include a free download that opens immed. of the first 20 pages of the book (which includes 5-6 lessons) so you can look it over.
This is a "Tried & True" Vintage Curriculum Manual containing over 140 short, simple daily "hands on" projects & lessons that teach your child the fundamental concepts they need to learn in their Kindergarten year.

No guesswork about "what to do next". No fear that your child is "missing out on something".

update on dizzy

2010-08-31T22:25:00.001-07:00

today ENT said that ears are still clear and he has no clue so i am scheduled for an extensive test, but the earliest opening is at the end of Sept. ARRGHHH! (to my family, no not calling for the cat.lol) a friend's father said that he has a similar prob. but it's caused by the tissues in the ear that the nerves run through being thick from reg. water absorption so he has to take a diurectic and then potassium since the diurectic leaches potassium. Another site said it might be low levels of magnesium and thiamin... guess i should take my multivitamins. In the meantime I'll keep hoping and praying that it will go away quickly cause at this point I don't care what the cause it I just want it gone!

ooohhh...i'm so dizzy....

2010-08-30T22:45:00.000-07:00

ok just to catch everybody up. I have been having probs. with my equilibrium since aug. 23rd, no it's not my ears..they are cleared up. they (ENT) think it might be a microscopic piece of bone that sheared off in the tubes of my inner ear. my chiropractor thinks its my spine which after looking at the x-rays is all out of whack ( yes, i looked at them too and could tell). either way, nothing has fixed it. anytime i move my head i get dizzy which makes me nauseous. i've seen the chiro 3x and had adjustment each time with little machine that they "punch" you with and toby complains that the chiro is a waist of time and money. ENT dropped my head backwards to the floor and then flipped me on the left, then told me to repeat it and come back in 5 days. nothing has helped. so now i see both again this week, hope to get some antivertigo meds, and continue to wear a soft neck brace to keep my head in one position.
meanwhile my hubby and good friends laugh at me and my hubby dares me to bejewel my neck brace. lol of course this also leads my joking about my body finally coming to terms with me being "unbalanced" or "off my rocker".

cut and dye jobs

2010-08-03T15:21:00.000-07:00

What happens to my 11 year old son when he doesn't do the dishes that he's been asked to do at least 6 times and his mom has been sick in bed with an ear infection for 3 days and his dad has been out of country for the same time? Well all that lovely hair that he was growing out to be a shaggy dog, like the good role model teens in our church group, get cut off. that's what happens. ok so i felt some compassion and left him some long hair down the center of his head for a mohawk or something if he wants.(okay anybody remember how grandpa meservy/Opa would get when one of the girls would cut thier hair... yeah i expect a worse reaction from Toby over this next hair cut).

Then Karina decides that she wants to cut her hair off to her shoulders but wants to be able to donate the hair. So I uct it and yeah as most of my girl hair cuts go, it went off at an angle, but I think that i fixed it pretty good. Her hair goes just below jaw level and tapers up towards the back of her hair and it really looks cute on her. She is donating her hair Pantene Beautiful Lengths who makes wigs for cancer patients and only require 9" of hair length.
So we've got the cuts out of the way, here's the dye jobs. Years ago I found these little bottles of color hair dye that contain no ammonia they are called "Paintbox". So I bought a ton of diff. colors for $0.50 ea. from Goodwill. My kids recently found the dies and wanted to dye their hair. Thankfully, the longer and more often you go swimming or wash your hair the faster it comes out without leaving a permanent mark or anything. ok so it can leave a permanent mark on your tub but that's what scrubbing bleach is for. Everybody( kids #1-5) chose a color and i dyed their hair. Karina and Nathaniel have red. Gabriel and Wayne have dark blue. Talia has purple. Kaiya and I didn't do our hair.
***UPDATE*** Toby pretty much just rolled his eyes and sighed. I could hear it over the long distance connection even. He's so used to me doing to stuff to my hair that apparently, Karina's cut was a worth while cause and everything else was just typical me. lol I love that man.

doing the weight Yo-Yo

2010-06-15T09:21:00.000-07:00

ok so toby left for a little over a week and i went bonkers on the food. seriously, 1st day was: 1 of 2 pieces of red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, 1/4 of a huge rice crispy treat, 1/2 of a large wedge of peach pudding cake (OMG--it was to die for), and broccoli salad. so i ate all the salad and gave the rest of the stuff to the kids the next day. 'Then a day or two later i messed up with more food and thought well i just messed up so i'll finish the day out bad. yeah so all that weight that i had lost from 236 to 228, i gained back and added a 1/2 pound too. it doesn't help when i gave up exercise for that week either and read books the whole time. i am addicted to reading and usu. not to anything helpful. lol

now the weight loss study that i'm in says that if i gain any weight incl. just a 1/2 lb. then i'm out and have to do it all on my own. so for about 3-4 days before going in for my latest appt. i cut my cal. down to 900cal. and drank lots, and lots, and LOTS of water. When i went in, I had lost all of it and an additional 1 lb. and 1 more inch on waist. yeah me! i was finally able to buy a 16w/18w t-shirt (norm. 22-24) and look good in it.

man i have got to get a handle on my eating. of course i also quit writing anything in my food journal because i knew how depressing it would be, which means i should have written it all down. last week i only had 1 or 2 small slips (choc. coconut cookies and banana pudding), still not writing down anything. check my weight and was up to 333lb. Since payday, bought more fruit (kids go through it like crazy) and lots of veggies for salads for me.

The Short Life of Bree Tanner by Stephanie Meyers available on FRIDAY!!!

2010-06-03T07:26:00.000-07:00

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is a novella. The new novella is told in the voice of the teenage Bree, a "newborn vampire" whom we meet on page 569 in Eclipse. Ten pages later, she's dead.
"There's only so much stuff you can tell when what Bella sees and hears is all you can tell," Meyer says.

"I had always wished people could read Bree's story before the movie came out," Meyer writes in remarks released today exclusively to Meyer's international publishers and only to USA TODAY in the USA.

Bree is part of an army of newborn vampires created by Cullen family nemesis Victoria. Thirsty for revenge after the Cullens kill her vampire lover James, Victoria's plan is to use her army to kill the Cullens and Bella.

"The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner is pretty much contained in the last week of the newborns' existence before the big fight (between the Cullens and the vampire army) in the meadow in Eclipse," Meyer says. "It's the last week before Bree dies."

In the novella, Meyer says, Bree has been a vampire for about three months. No other details are being released.

Stephanie said "We still wanted to also produce a physical book with a cool cover that you can add to your set if you like, but starting at noon on June 7th until July 5th, it will also be available online at www.breetanner.com. The novella (at 192 pages) will be released at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday, June 5, 2010 in hardcover for $13.99 with a first printing of 1.5 million copies.
One other aspect of this release is the plan to give a more important gift to people who really need it. One dollar of each book purchased in the US from the first printing will be donated to the American Red Cross for their relief efforts in Haiti and Chile and other parts of the world where people are in great need. We're going to have an option online as well, so you can choose to make a donation if you want when you read the story online. I hope you will. I think that we can really help a lot of people with this. " Donations to the American Red Cross from the US sales of The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner will continue until all first printing copies have been sold or at the end of a two-year period from the initial publication date, whichever is the first to occur.

all of my information came from Stephanie's interview's with USA Today, off of her official website , and the official press release.

Thank You Soldiers - Veteran's Day/Memorial Day Song

2010-06-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

More on killing roosters (warning headless chicken pic)

2010-06-01T01:37:00.000-07:00

ok, so i had to post a little more about killing our roosters. The whole reason we are raising chickens is for meat and eggs, right now it's about eggs. we are trying to be more self-sufficient, so that includes learning how to butcher our feed animals. we also think the kids should be involved in every step.

so we took the plastic park bench that sits in the back yard and took it all the way out to the chicken coop section of the yard. All the kids decided that they would sit and watch and found it amusing when i went to debowl the 1st chicken and needed to stand in fresh air (i.e. about 6 ft. away with wind blowing on me....thank goodness it there was a good breeze blowing all day).
toby had set up a killing cone just outside the coop on the short end, it really helped so that the chicken didn't run all over the place after it's head came off. Toby had rocks under the cone so that the blood could drip out and then be filtered to the ground, I however had other plans. I wanted to use the blood in the garden (ok so we didn't plant one this year, but still the land was there ready for use next yr. and it could use all the help it can get because it's so sandy). Anyway, I took a bucket and stuck it under the cone, but the bucket needed to be tilted so that it caught the blood. The closest thing handy to wedge under it, was the mean red roosters head. I thought it was fitting, in fact so did the kids.

now the kids didn't stay for all of it, they would wander off and come back to watch, run to the house to fetch gallon size baggies and then run the skinned chicken into the house and stick it in the fridge. wayne helped catch most of the roosters. I just squeezed their necks until they couldn't breathe and then swung them around a few times to break their necks, if they still seemed to fight then i did it a few more times before i put them in the killing cone. after about 2 this way then i tried laying them on the table and drawing a slow line with my finger in front of their eyes (thanks arline for the tip). it did help calm them and then I tried the hatchet, but it wasn't sharp and so was really more tragic for the bird. For the last 2, I did the line trick ( i was tired of getting scratched) and then used the blunt side of the hatchet to break their necks , one or two good whacks was it, then i stuck them in the killing cone and beheaded them.

we didn't have anyone get upset until i killed "oreo ball" then nathaniel cried, but i just re-explained that roosters are only taking up feed and that means wasting money because they don't lay eggs and we weren't going to breed them to make more chickens. he got over it and went swimming again in about 5 min. toby was a little disappointed that he wasn't there to do any of it, but brightened up at the thought of buying some boilers for next year. He was really impressed that I got the gumption and just did it myself (see sometimes i'm a self starter...ok so as tina pointed out today...it took me how many months of talking about it before i did it...yeah). next year we invest in an axe (lol, me and an axe...yeah i know you are cringing) and pay for some high quality really sharp knives (christmas ideas!! lol, no i'm serious).

i'll tell you later what we had to do to make the meat soft enough to eat and how it tasted. I was going to cook it today, but we got sidetracked and went to hang out with friends and make some new friends.

learning how to butcher roosters (NO PICS AND NOT GRAFFIC)

2010-05-29T18:28:00.001-07:00

ok so as a kid, we lived in New Mexico for awhile and apparently we had some chickens. Mostly i remember the mean rooster. Now we had a fenced yard but the rooster had run of it and 'Nae (3) and I (4) hated to go out to play because the rooster would attack us. The only safe place was the metal storage shed that held the animal food. so we would run from the porch to the shed and hide in there eating dog bisquits. what? like you haven't eaten any?

now where am i going with this? to the present day where we have a mean rooster who terrorizes my kids when they try to feed the roosters and the chickens, eventually we had to seperate the roosters out into their own area. meanwhile, toby and i have been talking about killing our roosters and eating them. yeah, that didn't happen cause the roosters are now 1 yr. old which is about 7 mo. longer than they should be for soft meat. we kept trying (make that we were lazy) to find someone that we knew who would come out to our place and show us how to kill one of these guys, since we had no clue. the long and short of it is, that we didn't. we did some research found some cool machines to help pluck, but never did any of it. so today while toby went fishing, I decided to kill the roosters. I watched 2 diff. vids on youtube.com and found a blog with all the directions, then I went and did it.
so note to self, make sure roosters/chickens don't eat anything for 24-48 hrs. before killing them. remember not to eat anytime soon before dispatching you chickens to the nether world (thank goodness i remembered...it was touch and go for a min.). unless your hatchet is really sharp and has a long handle, it won't cut and is only good for breaking their necks. so make sure you have a sharp knife and plenty of water nearby (which i did). all in all, I didn't do too bad for a first timer. it took 3 hrs. to do everything, including cutting up, for 5 roosters.

If you are interested in learning how to do it yourself here are the vids and blog that I went to.
here is the time honored tradition, the diff. way of no boiling just skinning (here is kinda how i did it. yes the guys are dorks, but good instruction..ok well enough for me to follow anyway. i watched all three they have posted.), and lastly the proper way to cut up chicken even buying it whole from the store.

lost some weight

2010-05-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

so i have been using the lifestyle plan that jorge cruise said. 15g. sugars a day and 6 carb points. each point is 6-20g. of carbs. so if a piece of bread has 3g sugar and 17 carbs then my count would be 3/1. i keep a food journal every day, as i eat i jot it down and at the end then i add up to tell me how good or bad i've done. much better than counting calories. Now mind you i haven't been doing good all the time, but the next day is a new day and I try again.

so for two weeks i did my Power 90 Dvd which has a sweat/cardio 30min. section and a tone 30min section. I switch them out every other day and do tony little's ab isolator. then i got lazy and didn't do anything for 2 weeks and then this week if I didn't do my Power 90 then i walked on my gazelle for about 30 min. while watching tv.

so drum roll please!!! so total for 1 month i have gone from 245 to 228. so lost 17 pounds and 2" off my waist. lost 8lbs. in the last 2 weeks. it might've been more but i over ate a couple day, but still a good thing.

For Abby: Ozone-numa numa english version with lyrics

2010-05-12T12:37:00.000-07:00

Abby here is the english version with the words so you can see and understand.

Today Show looking for info on Homeschooling

2010-05-06T05:20:00.000-07:00

The TODAY SHOW on NBC is looking for feed back on "Why You Homeschool?" They say that your replies MIGHT be featured in a story on todayshow.com (note the .com). Fill out the Today Show's Questionnaire. The Today Show Questionnaire is apart of Today Participate.

Martha stewart parody with karina

2010-05-05T16:38:00.000-07:00

some friends of our love to make wacky "martha stewart" videos and thier middle daughter doe it so perfect. karina's in this one. you can check out more of their stuff on you tube under janewinkafull.

update on new schedule and getting paid for weight loss

2010-05-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

ok so we haven't been getting up at 6-6:30 every morning, but i have been exercising every day and keeping a food journal, at least until this past sat. then it was sun, and yesterday i had a feverish, whiny,needing mommy constantly 2 yr. old. i laid down with her during my exercise time and i passed out for 1-1/2 hrs. which knocked off my whole day and she ended up getting on and off the couch with me or putting her stuffed animals to sleep with me. today toby slept in on accident and so i didn't get up until he did, ok so i was woken up a few times by the kids, but can you blame me after having to sleep on the couch with a cranky 2 yr. old who wasn't feeling good and couldn't make up her mind about cuddling or not. finally at some point she fell fast asleep on the floor next to me.
i was recently accepted into an obese weight loss clinical trial. while i already keep track of my carbs and sugars i now have to count calories, thanks arlene for the calorie king book you gave me a yr. or so ago. i may or may not end up taking xenacal or another drug or a placebo or any combination thereof. I finally feel strong enough to battle my weight, but feel that i may need extra help and an extra person to be responsible to. i found out that a great bonus to this is that i get paid $50 after each visit. great now i have more gas money to run the 30-45min. out there. lol i only go in every 2-4wks. depending on what's scheduled.

school may go out the window for this week since it is play practice week with the play being this thurs. night. thankfully allison picks up karina for practice while i watch her youngest. my house is a mess. sometimes i feel it stays a mess. i am trying to keep up with laundry and seperate out all the clothes so i know what to throw away, what to put in the attic, and what they can keep in their drawers. however anytime, i get close they have gone through the piles of clean clothes, forget to take the dirty ones out of their room, and then dog pile me in laundry, . hence why i'm trying to cut down on the clothes. karina wants to change her room around but it's already at it's best esp, since she shares a room with the little girls. if you think she's deprived, too bad. she didn't take care of her room and lost the privilage of having her own room and now we have a gymn.

AAARRRGGGHH!!!

2010-05-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

my kids don't listen unless i yell. if i try to change so that i don't yell, they just ignore me. no matter what i teach them about respecting other peoples space and property they don't listen. They don't respect each other stuff here in the house or elsewhere, today they tried climbing on someonelse's van. they don't and haven't listened to me or their punishments for climbing our van and that includes 3 yrs. ago right after a new paint job. we take things away, we have talks, we scream and yell, we gave them spanking, now we give them time out or push-ups. nothing phases them for long. i have lost teen babysitters because my kids won't listen to them and they abuse the babysitters. i have friends where certain children are not allowed because they are just too much trouble, rough and tumble, fight and find too many things to get into.
we have 3 meals a day and 2 snack a day and yet my children still steal food from the family. doesn't matter what we do.
my boys destroy doors as they try to get to one another in their retaliation, no matter how much we preach about coming to parents about a prob. 1st. ok, so the only 2 doors destroyed are their door and their bathroom door.

yeah, yeah, i know the answers that most people will give:

1.your kids don't listen because they are homeschooled. Oh yeah, well look at public school kids, they aren't any better.

2. you are the queen of mad timebomb. yeah,i know and i already castigate myself over this. I take meds to help me, but when I get too overwhelmed then i blow.

3. obviously you aren't teaching them the right way at home. then please get off your righteous butts and come up here and do it, esp. since your kids turned out so fantastic (read heavy sarcasm here). and while i may not always be great, my hubby is and do you think he's not supporting me in teaching the kids the right way to do things, then you are smoking crack!

4. then why did you have so many kids? there are no polite words to this so instead i give you the finger.

5. then you need to get them involved in activities. yeah with what $$? we cut out most of our extras except dsl internet and an occasional date night including cost of babysitter. we may make more than some, but we live paycheck to paycheck most of the time and if we have extra money it goes to buying the kids things they need or occasionally what they want. and if i'm not doing that then i'm helping someone out or just trying to be loving and generous by getting things for people who have a need. we don't have money that we can dish out monthly per 5 active kids (kaiya's too little) and joining the YMCA is a crock! maybe if i could find things that have a low one time fee, but those are hard to come by unless you join a club and even then you are paying a large monthly fee to the club so you can get a low one time fee for an activity.

if you've got something derogatory to say then bug off! i am so tired of those comments. i am doing the best that i can. If however, you have had 3 boys close in age who constantly fought and managed to get them to stop and start listening then please leave a pos. comment that might help.

New Family Schedule

2010-04-29T08:44:00.000-07:00

hubby has put us on a new schedule. lol, yeah i know "another one". Only this time I realize what a slacker I have been in certain aspects of my life and finally feel ready to go with the schedule, except today when toby woke us up late and we enjoyed our time in bed. so needless to say everything is running 2 hrs. behind. so i gotta go!

oh yeah, high points of this new schedule is that we wake up at 6-6:30 am instead of 8am and he and I both exercise. Wow! I know and you all thought I had been doing this for awhile. well I fell off the exercise/diet/life eating wagon for awhile and now I am back on. It's only been 4 days, but i feel good and not so sore anymore.

ok another side step. Best compression sports bra out there for big busted women, or anyone else reguardless of your chest size, is made in the UK. it's called "shock absorber", you can find it if you google "shock absorber sports bra" or you can go to their website www.shockabsorer.co.uk. all big busted women need at level 4 bra. now these things run around $60 but I was able to buy mine new off ebay for about $27. Remember that UK/Euro sizing is diff. than US sizing, like I norm wear a 40H but I bought a 40FF. I love it!!!! Yes, you still have bounce, you can't eliminate that unless you completely wrap your breasts up tight with some 6"-8" ace bandages. However, it fits good like sports bras did when you were a teenager and had smaller boobs... oops. lol, ok sorry I just couldn't resist. It has to sets of hooks and eyes, the top set is harder to do, so i either have toby do it up or i just leave it hooked as I put it on and off. Then I just have to do the bottom hooks, like a norm bra. There is no underwire in it. Here's a link to the one I bought . I've also found it in blue, white, and black. oh and if you are interested they sell swim suits with their shock absorber support.

New shoes!

2010-04-25T17:41:00.001-07:00

Oh I love new shoes! You can never have enough and one shade of a color just won't cut it either. That being said I found a gorgeous pair of fuchsia pink heels (can't have enough heels either). So i decided to wear them today to church. so i put on a ton of body armor (after all I have to compress as fat as I can). then put on a cute outfit and away I went. OK so my image of myself never matches pictures. I still envision a skinny me and pictures always bring me back to reality. However, I loved my shoes, my outfit and most importantly I felt sexy, so toby benefitted. lol

Homeschool your child with Private school accreditation

2010-04-23T08:13:00.000-07:00

My friends Tina Kendal and Mariann Nichols have started a private school for homeschoolers. Currently they are accredited in Georgia, but they are trying to get accredited in other states too. Check out their site, it is awesome! a plus is you still get to use the curriculum that you like.
here's their e-mail:

Dear Family and Friends;

I am very happy to announce the grand opening of a new school in Georgia....Liberty Independent Private School!

Liberty Independent Private School caters to the homeschooling community combining all the advantages of family- centered education with private school accreditation.

We can provide your homeschooled high school student a real college-acceptable diploma and real high school transcripts from a real school, making their transition into post-secondary education as a possible.

Liberty is a K-12 non-traditional private school, established to provide parents with the privacy and peace of mind the need to concentrate on the comprehensive education of their children.

We support your LIBERTY to educate your child in that wholesome and loving environment where learning is a natural part of everyday life- your home.

To learn more about Liberty Independent Private School and how it can benefit your family visit us at www.LibertyIPS.com. Click on the Contact Us page for questions.

isn't he sweet?

2010-04-23T05:47:00.000-07:00

toby had a business dinner last night, so i sent him a text asking him to bring me home a small piece of choc. cake. Unfortunately, the dinner was a catered event at one of the work sites. However, sweet man that he is, toby went to a groc. store on the way home and bought me a small choc. cake and 3 roses. I love my man!

Help!!! trying to decide on getting a washer.

2010-04-06T08:36:00.000-07:00

Help!!! trying to decide on getting a washer. our washer broke, then we spent $80 for buy parts for it and put them in ourselves. that still wasn't the prob....it's inside the transmisssion and would take two $100 tools to get to it for a $6 part. So we bought a used one from someone PCSing for $85, but even thought it says heavy duty extra large capacity washer, it only hold half the load of my old one. So now with tax return $$ coming in, I am doing research to buy a front loading washer. thanks to my sister for letting me use her consumer report account, but i still want actual buyer reviews.
why do i want a front loader? i can do faster loads of laundry buy washing larger loads. Now i don't know about your kids, but mine are terror on clothes, bedding, and pillows. so i am constantly having to go to the laundry mat for bedding and pillows once every two weeks or try to wash them at home in my old top loader that i felt wasn't washing them as well and it definately wasn't washing the pillows.

do you have a front loading washer? Tell me your make and model is and what you do or don't like about it.
If you have a top loader that will wash a king size comforter, tell me the make and what you like about it.

thanks for in advance for your time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOBY!!!!

2010-03-22T15:28:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to my man and no we aren't saying how old he is since he's only 9 months older than me. ;P gabriel was asking toby how old he was today and nathaniel piped up with "he's 26!" yeah we'll go with that. of course a couple people at work thought the same thing. he just looks younger even with his receding hair line.

Toby is an awesome husband and father. He likes to joke that our kids look like the plumber, the electrician, the mechanic, the fix-it guy, or the carpenter. of course it's true, but that's because he does all that stuff for us and our house. if he doesn't know how to do it, he'll read about it and then do it. He's gotten pretty good at taking things apart and putting them back together in working order.

he's taking a nap right now and prob. thinks that this birthday kinda sucked, but i'm waiting until later to surprise him.
see he came home from work and the kids gave him his presents, little stuff like a measuring tape, car stethoscope, safety goggles, safety earmuffs, a multi-tip screwdriver, electrical tape, 2 hammers (ok he really liked those because the boys have used, left out, and destroyed his others), etc. oh and our joke items he had to wear a pointy birthday hat that karina picked out and we gave him shaving cream, a travel toothbrush set, and a pair of church socks. so it was just small piddly stuff that he can use but nothing big. now normally this wouldn't even phase him and he didn't even crack when we gave them to him, he was happy, thanked us and everything, but i know he's not too happy. Recently, we had some extra money and i do what i normally do and spent a lot of it, ok you can call me names and shake your heads later, so he's thinking i spent all that money and didn't buy anything for him but this little stuff.
little does he know but i bought him a winch that works up to 3,000lbs, a welding helmet, 90 amp flux wire welder, welding protective apron and gloves, a pneumatic grease gun, a really nice tool belt, and one of those measuring wheels on a stick that you push and it measures without using a long tape. thankfully all of these things were in his wish list folder on the computer and we had just gotten the sale paper with coupons in it for Harbor Freight, so i was able to get some really good deals. The kids and I know this, but toby doesn't. I'm being evil and waiting about 2 1/2 hrs. to feed kids and get them ready for bed and then before they go to bed, give him his gifts.

Inspiration for ME

2010-03-18T08:53:00.000-07:00

This is for all of you who are obese and overweight like I am. I now sit at 250lbs. and my doctor calls me obese. My husband is concerned that if I don't lose weight that I will die early from heart disease or something, not that any med. tests have come back neg. in my yearly physical so no worries.
There are 2 new things that I am doing for myself.

1. I have started to change my eating habits for the better by using Jorge Cruises new book "The Belly Fat Cure." Jorge Cruise knows what it's like to be fat from kid to adult and learned how to loose this weight. (I know he works I've seen my sister-in-law Elizabeth Meservy use his book "8 minutes in the morning" and lose the extra weight she wanted to lose.) In "The Belly Fat Cure" you learn what good carbs and bad carbs are. Now many of us know that already but few of us know how to use that information to eat what we normally like to eat and this book helps with that. There are some things that he suggests that you may want to add/switch out in your diet. It is much cheaper on your pocket book to do this one or two things at a time, but it does help and work and most things you can work around. Some items are cheap and easy to sub like any "Ronzoni Healthy Harvest" products like rice and noodles are cheap and great! Tumarro's is also a cheap but good brand for whole wheat flour tortillas. Of course you can always make your own bread with a sugar alcohol (not really an alcohol or a sugar but a type of carb that isn't completely absorbed by the body and they don't cause blood-sugar spikes). These cost a little more but can be found in health food stores and online. Sugar alcohols which are considered nonnutritive sweeteners- like stevia, xylitol, maltitol, and erythritol (this one tastes most like sugar and I love using it when i bake).
"The Belly Fat Cure" gives you several different types of weekly menus like carb lovers, meat madness, chicken and seafood, quick & easy (using fast food believe it or not), and sweet bites. The book shows different things people like to eat from different restaurants and gives specific examples on each item on how to change it out for the better yet still have the same thing.
book (i bought mine at Sam's Club and I like the spiral bound one for $12.22)
http://www.amazon.com/Belly-Fat-Cure-Discover-System/dp/1401927181/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268925587&sr=8-1
Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/jorgecruise
website
www.thebellyfatcure.com

2. I don't usually read anything off msn or yahoo except my mail. today an article caught my eye and made me cry, it's given me inspiration again to try to get off my butt and loose this weight that i've gained over the yrs. (yes, i fell off the wagon again!) maybe she can help you too. Sandra Kelley was a fat kid and a fat adult, at her heaviest was 450lbs. and she was at that weight for a long time. She had gastric bypass surgery, lost 200lbs. She felt better, she looked better, she ate better, and she exercised but she "never addressed the root of why she was obese in the first place". Eventually she gained back that 200lbs. after an abusive marriage, low self-esteem ,and daily stress. I agree with her that "The emotions of the past, if never dealt with, will become a stronghold in your life." and this can affect yourself and your weight. Sandra Kelley is life coach and self-esteem expert, with degrees to back it up, who has opened her own business
T.O.U.C.H. 52:11 (Taking Over Unwanted Character Hurts). Sandra says that she invited God back into her life and that is an important part of her and it helps her to rely on the Lord when she feels like she can't go on. Now she is not of my faith, doesn't pray in exactly the way I pray, but I believe that her example in asking the Lord for help is a testimony that we can all do better if we also rely on our own faith and Creator reguardless of your religion.
here's the story of Sandra Kelley
http://health.msn.com/weight-loss/weight-loss-story.aspx?cp-documentid=100255145&cp-catid=1
her talk radio podcast T.O.U.C.H. 52:11 (Taking Over Unwanted Character Hurts)
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/search/touch5211/
youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MNXgE8iA60
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg0csTd8xQg&feature=youtube_gdata
her blog (start with reading her Jan. posts)
http://450poundstofreedom.blogspot.com/

I like both Jorge Cruise and Sandra Kelley because they both give you tools to use. Sandra being a woman talks more about her feelings and how you might be feeling and how this can affect your weight loss and helps you come to terms with things you may not realize are affecting you. sometimes as my good friend Noel Henderson said " you have to tell yourself that you like yourself, that you love yourself, that you forgive yourself each day".

Snow TWICE in 10 yrs.!!!!

2010-02-16T14:34:00.000-08:00

As you all know we live in the south, on the Georgia/South Carolin border to be exact. we NEVER get snow except on a blue moon. last Fri., Feb. 12th, was the second time in 10 yrs. that we have gotten enough snow and this time there was enough to build snowmen. In the end we had many changes of hats and gloves and finally nobody cared if they were wearing a "boy" or a "girl" color. so you may see the boys wearing pink, but their jackets are blue and yellow, blue and orange, or wearing a batman skimask (gabriel). just so you know since they look so pretty. lol Even kaiya spent plenty of time outside playing in the snow.

when the snow started sticking to the ground and it was mere centimeters, my kids had to go out and make "snow" angels. ok so they were more grass angles, but you could still see them.

finally the snow started falling thicker and getting deeper. The kids made snowmen, destroyed snowmen, then karina, gabriel, and nathaniel made a family of snowmen.
later there was a snowball fight which toby happily participated in along with the neighbor boy. By then it was getting dark and my camera wasn't taking good action shots since i was trying to stay out of the way and not get hit. karina did hit me with a snowball in the back though.

At some point the kids decided to make forts outside using some of the outside toys for part of it and snowblocks made from buckets and trash cans for the other, but it never got too far. lol

We let the kids stay up late and play in the snow, since we rarely get it. So sometime around 8-9pm toby was out there with the kids making a bigger and better snowman. all i did was tell them where to put the fresh snow to cover the grass and let them borrow my hat and scarf that JaNae made me one year. and yes, the snowman has 2 diff. eyes, but those were the only checkers they could find. lol

It was pretty much all melted by 2-3pm on Sat.

monkey and the nut

2010-02-16T14:04:00.001-08:00

Tree throw-up aka Broccoli salad for Aunt Hannah

2010-02-12T17:17:00.000-08:00

I love broccoli salad (toby doesn't hence the blog title) and it's a mainstay at the local buffets down here in the south. Since I had the ingredients in the fridge I decided to make some and share the recipe incase aunt hannah hadn't found a good recipe for it yet. I remember you blogging that you liked it. so i will share my recipe and the dressing recipe is mom's coleslaw dressing recipe, which is more complicated, tastes so much better than just mayonnaise and sugar.

Broccoli Salad:

2-4 heads of broccoli
1/2-1 C. medium red or purple onion, diced
1/3-1/2 C. sunflower seeds, hulled
1/2-1 C. raisins, reg. or golden
1 large carrot, grated
1/2-1 C. grated cheddar cheese
1/4-1/2 C. bacon bits (I buy mine premade in a bag)

Cut broccoli into bite-size pieces. Grate carrot and cheese. Dice onion. Fry bacon hard, drain and crumble. In a large bowl mix all ingredients together.

"Pantry Restaurant" Coleslaw Dressing from kitchen of Jan Parker:

1 1/2 C. plus 2 Tbl. mayonnaise
6 Tbl. plus 1 tsp. sugar (or 2 Tbl. Stevia or you could use Malitol)
3 Tbl. plus 1/2 tsp. red wine vinegar
3/4 C. plus 1 Tbl. oil
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. onion powder
1/8 tsp. mustard powder (1/2 tsp. prepared mustard)
1/8 tsp. celery powder or seed
Dash black pepper
1 Tbl. plus 2 tsp. lemon juice
3/4 C. plus 1 Tbl. half and half cream (sometimes I substitute whipping cream if I have that)
1/2 tsp. salt

Mix together in a bowl with spoon or wire whisk. Store in refrigerator. This is enough to mix with two heads of shredded cabbage. You can 1/2 this recipe and you will still have enough. This also keeps well in frigde for 3-4 months (I do this if I make too much.) This is absolutely great on coleslaw!!! I always have requests for it, for BBQ's.

Weaning kaiya and the start of the terrible twos

2010-02-08T07:30:00.000-08:00

toby got home from Japan this past friday. while he was gone for 2 weeks, i decided to wean kaiya. yes she will be 2 at the end of next month, but i have really enjoyed the closeness with this baby. there's no so much haste to get her to quit breastfeeding before the next one comes along since i put an IUD in. Before, I would try to breastfeed for about 1 yr. then I had to have my boobs back and not be a milk cow for 1 yr. before the next one was born esp. since they are all 18-24 months apart.
it's much easier to wean when toby's not around for the baby to wake him up with her screaming as i try to calm her down and get her back to sleep without nursing her. We always do it this way, it just works for us.

kaiya has been doing pretty well. i still want to nurse her when she gets hurt or before bed, but i haven't. sometimes she wakes up in the middle of the night (3am-4am) and screams, I take her out of her room and she still screams but will eventually calm down and go back to sleep. Toby and kaiya agree that i'm a tease. yesterday after i had gotten out of the shower, kaiya woke up. since i had my robe on and she was acting cold i decided to wrap her in it next to me, but she decided that i had relented and was going to nurse her. she was screaming in frustration as I realized what she wanted. yeah i know, dumb mom.

anyway to compensate her for her lost nursing times, I will sit with her while she eats. she gets really upset if i don't and gets even more upset if i don't hand feed her. at other times she gets upset if i do because she wants to do it herself. yep, the terrible twos have already started. ah the entertainment kids give us.

Just Add Water Food Storage Pancakes

2010-02-06T06:42:00.000-08:00

These are my fav. pancakes. This recipe equals one box of instant pancake mix.

Just Add Water Food Storage Pancakes from kitchen of Anna Wilkinson (make this powder ahead of time, put it in a ziplock bag, and keep it in the cupboard)

Dry Ingredients:
5C. Flour
1/3 C. sugar
¼ C. baking powder
1 ¼ tsp. Salt
2/3 c. Dried Whole egg powder
1 2/3 – 2 C. Dried Milk (use 1 2/3c. If using Deseret milk)

Wet Ingredients (add when ready to cook):
4 ½ - 5 C. water
2-5 tsp. Vanilla or any other flavor

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl stir together the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients just till moistened (batter should be lumpy).
For standard-size pancakes, pour about ¼ cup batter onto a hot, slightly greased griddle or heavy skillet. For dollar-size pancakes, pour about 1 Tablespoon batter onto a hot, lightly greased griddle or heavy skillet. Cook over medium heat about 2 minutes on each side or till pancakes are golden brown, turning to second sides when pancakes have bubbly surfaces and edges are slightly dry. Serve warm .
Makes 30 – 50 standard-size (4-inch) or 160-180 dollar-size (2-inch) pancakes.

Diaper Rash Creams---My 3 favorites

2010-02-04T18:33:00.000-08:00

So here are my 3 favorite diaper rash cream. They all seem to heal really quickly and I have used them all. None have zinc oxide, since that never works on my kids, it tends to aggravate their hinnies.

Balmex Multi-purpose Healing Ointment www.balmex.com can be found in baby section of Bi-lo or Food Lion ($6)

Grandma El's diaper rash remedy and prevention www.grandmaels.com so far only found online ($9)

Burt's Bees Baby Bee Skin crème www.burtsbees.com it's a small tub in a little box,found locally only at Publix in baby aisle ($8)

If you want a look at their ingredients and what each is for, I'm providing a link on the right for their .pdfs.

stupid kittens

2010-02-03T10:03:00.000-08:00

I think i remember saying that our cat persephone died in dec. my friend, tina, was giving away kittens (8wks. old), so i took george then later his brother, fred.
today we got home from co-op and i asked karina to move the laundry. she asked me if i knew that there was cat puke in the laundry soap? Uh, NO! so she got the chuncky parts out but couldn't get the rest. Thankfully my laundry soap has plenty of stuff, like bentonite clay, in it to make any small amount of liquid clump. then you can scoop it out like clumpable cat litter.
Stupid cats trying to eat powdered laundry soap and before you ask, NO it does not have any fragrance added to it. g uess i need to put a lid on it now though. stupid cats!

ok so an addendum (big word for me I know) for all those cat lovers, the kittens are fine. they are eating normally, running, playing, and in general being their loving selves. They love sitting on me in the evening if I sit still long enough.

My kids are happy...I'm cooking chinese food.

2010-01-29T14:56:00.001-08:00

making chinese food. eggrolls, kung pao chicken, general tso's chicken, sesame chicken, chicken in oyster sauce, beef and broccoli, hot and sour soup, and crab rangoons. we know the eggrolls are awesome (thank you, thank you to my brother, Roy, for teaching me) and all the chicken has turned out great too. now on to the rest.

Be forewarned unless you have multiple stoves this seems to be an all day project from 10am-9pm minus an hr. for running to the store for tofu for the hot and sour soup. i never did get the scrab rangoons, teriyaki chicken, or the pork dumplings/pot stickers done, maybe tonight. Hot and sour soup is great but you need to find the dried lily buds at an oriental market, otherwise the taste if off believe me be cause I didn't get them.

I have a new link to the right called "Recipes" from there you can see any recipes I post including my pdf. for chinese food with all the recipes I used. Thanks to DocStoc I was able to upload my pdf., get an html code for it, and create a link for it so you can see it. It's a Free program.

Awesome Hair bow give away!

2010-01-29T08:19:00.000-08:00

got to orange peanut, she is doing an awesome give away of hair bows and other hair stuff. My cousin shannon makes all the bows and they are so cool, i just look and drool over them. check it out @ fox den productions!

How i cut my hair---For Abby or anyone else interested

2010-01-27T10:16:00.000-08:00

I only did it myself because I have a friend who's a certified beautician (lives down the street) and if I really messed it up she could fix it (after all Tina has fixed my girls' hair when they let the boys cut it) .

After taking a shower, letting my hair dry to look it's best.

For the first layer, I took a section of hair from the middle of my ears and left it down for the bottom layer. I put the rest up on top of my head. Then I would just pull the bottom layer around so I could see it and just snip off a few of the bad (straight frizzy curls) at the bottom of the "S". This is the only layer that really needs to be even (so get some help if you need it....tina evened mine out the next day). When I was done then I twisted the bottom layer, made a small bun low on my head and pinned it.

For the middle layer, I separated my hair from about 1 1/2-2inches above my ear and pinned the rest up. ( so you have a small bun at bottom and hair pinned to top of your head). This layer I cut to my shoulders. First I separated so I could see half on each side of my head. Then I just cut a few strands at a time (remembering to cut at the bottom of the "S"). I would stand sideways in the mirror, push my hair back to where it would normally lie and glance to make sure it was all even (don't go too crazy or OCD because curly hair can be forgiving in middle and top layers...i.e. the curls cover the mistakes). When I was done then I twisted it up and made a bun in the middle of my head.

For the third layer, I let down what was left and separated it in half. Then I grabbed hold of all of it and just cut it all to the bottom of my chin (this is where the pic. of the hair chunk came from and the first after cut pic). Since my hair is so curly, I really didn't want to cut it any shorter. I still needed to be able to pull my hair back into a barrette or ponytail, so chin length was the perfect length. After that I followed the step for the middle layer, where I glance at my hair in the mirror and made any adjustments (I didn't do a whole lot, so don't go OCD over it). Remember curls hide more mistakes than straight hair does.

By this time my hair didn't look too hot, so I showered and conditioned (using mixed chicks), then let it air dry for the end result pics. For best results follow the tutorials from the videos (link on the side bar) and use all 3 products (samples of their 3pack are available from their site.). Now my hair isn't so thick (because of the layers), but if I leave it down it's not in everything esp. my face and I still have most of my length (which Toby loves). I sleep with my hair in a loose ponytail on top of my head. It also looks cute running around it with a few strands of the short layer hanging down. The next day I spritz my hair with a little conditioner in water (shake it up), scrunch my hair then go.

heart attack part 3 The Reveal!!!

2010-01-26T18:08:00.000-08:00

ok now that i've given everyone a heart attack and i have laughed uproariously over it because you know i love a good laugh and i love causing a reaction good, bad, or otherwise. By the way Toby has seen all of it and was NOT amused by any of it. He loves my long locks, but forgave me after the reveal.
TA-DAH!!!!! I was just cutting layers in my hair then I used my awesome "mixed chicks" hair products and my hair is ever so much curlier and better defined. my hair is sooo soft too. Ok,ok I'll even include a good before hair cut and after haircut pic so you can see it's not too bad. you can buy sample of the products at www.mixedchicks.net then look under "products" you get 3 samples of their 3pack, which is shampoo, deep conditioner, and leave-in conditioner. I shampoo my hair about twice a week the rest of the time I just do a conditioner wash with the deep cond. and then put in the leave-in. If you are in Augusta, Ga then the place to get Mixed Chicks hair products is from www.stacyahill.com. Stacy is awesome with ALL hair types. I walked in just to buy the products after finding her on www.naturallycurly.com and then clicking on her link to www.mixedchicks.net. When I walked in and wanted to buy the products, Stacy was with another customer but she took the time to ask me about my hair, what products I used, and how I style my hair to make sure that these products were right for me and my hair. She was really kind and nice, you could tell by the way she talked and was interested in what I had to say and wasn't pushy. She's located in the salon of Southern Accents Salon & Spa at 122 Old Evans Rd., Martinez, Ga 30815.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOM!!

2010-01-26T09:41:00.000-08:00

ok so I forgot Royal's birthday on the 17th. Happy belated birthday royal.

today is my mom's birthday and no we aren't discussing her age. Just wanted to say that i love her much and thanks for being a good mom.

Toby is in Japan

2010-01-26T09:14:00.000-08:00

Ok so I'm 15 hrs ahead of you guys. I'm up on Yahoo chat in the morn and evening to have contact with Anna and kids mostly but that makes me available for you guys too if you want.

So far this trip is a bust. We were supposed to start work on Monday and the equipment had not even left the US yet. We are waiting for it to arrive and experiencing the country while we wait.

So far I have mastered plumbing and train transit. If that sounds funny, it is. The toilet in the hotel is one of those "automated" features of the room. water jets, air dry, no odor fans, heated seat, etc.... I think it's the first thing that intrigued every guy in the group, LOL. We have to use the train system to go and come from the work site and to get to anywhere else we want to visit. Multiple lines, multiple direction, spagetti diagrams, express Vs Local, etc... have made it interesting.

We set out too late yesterday, following one of the younger guys and his very young cousin who showed up for a visit. She was head strong and would not listen to us on the timing. As usual, we caved in and went anyway telling ourselves, we had nothing better to do. I can say that I've been to more cities in Japan than I did in Korea, Hungry, and Germany put together, LOL..... Anyway, we got within one last train transfer that would take an hour to get to Mt. Fuji. I studied the train charts today and figured out that there is a better route than the one sold to us by the travel agent in the station. Seems they needed to make a profit and sent us around the world when we could have taken an express train direct. We will likely try again tomorrow and see a feudal castle on the way.

One of the guys has a professional grade camera with him so I'll get pics from him after the trip and send them out or post them on the family blog.

Well your all caught up on me and my whereabouts.
Talk to you later.

Love all of you.
Toby

What an open metal pipe does to your mouth

2010-01-26T08:59:00.000-08:00

so gabriel had a short metal pipe that he was playing with and brought it into the house. he was sitting in the living room leaning over it (his mouth right above it). wayne, not knowing about the pipe, hit gabriel on the back of the head as he walked by causing gabriel's mouth to hit the open end of the metal pipe.
gabriel came crying and was saying he was bleeding and had tissue to his mouth, but my boys bust lips all the time so i didn't pay much attention to it, until they had all calmed down. Thank goodness wayne had a dentist appt. that day. The pipe had cut into gabriel's gums and you could see some of the root of one of his front permanent teeth. so we went to the dentist, i told them i was trading out kids for who was being seen. the office wanted to charge me $80 for an emergency visit and i insisted it wasn't an emergency visit since I already had an appt. In the end they only charged me $40.
the dentist said that the gum had already reattached itself by the time he was seen (about 2 hrs. after it happened), he has antibiotics that have to be taken every 6 hrs., pain meds. we only used once, and a rinse called perioxyl only at CVS for $7-$8. The perioxyl (after looking at all the ingredients) is a combination of peroxide 1.5% and listerine. since i had both (peroxide 3% and listerine) at home, i made an 1/2 and 1/2 solution and it has done it's job and for much cheaper too. today i take gabriel back for a free visit to see how he is healing. so here ar 2 blurry pics to show a slight view of before and after antibiotics and rinse.

12yr. old not happy

2010-01-26T08:07:00.000-08:00

so my 12 yr. old was not happy when i woke her up at 1 am this morning to change the cat litter that I had asked her to change around 6pm.
The baby woke up at 12:30 and as I sat on the couch with her trying to get her to drink vanilla soy milk instead of nurse, I smelled fresh cat poop in the living room. After looking around i found the fresh pile next to the pile that I had found around 6pm when I asked karina to pick up and clean out the litter box since that was the cause of the problem. she didn't so she got woken up at 1am to finish her chore. She insisted that it could not be done since it was one in the morning. then after much insisting back and forth she was done. When i gave her some flip flops to take the litter out, did she insist that it couldn't be taken out because it was freezing outside. I told her that since she was covered neck to toe in a heavy fleece night gown. She was sure that I would never go out in that temp. in just my fleece robe....oh little does she know how many times i have had to run out to get something from the car, turn the hose off in the garden, feed or water any of the animals.
i then informed her that when chores weren't done on time, i would wait til she was asleep and then wake her up at midnight to finish her chores, after all i'm up then. maybe then she will start doing her chores before going to bed.

heart attack part 2

2010-01-25T15:31:00.001-08:00

Products for curly hair no matter your race

2010-01-24T14:41:00.000-08:00

love these products! found these from another site, bought them, tried them, know people who use them. love them!
Whether you are interracial or not, if you have curly hair it is a pain to try to find stuff for your hair and you are constantly changing products. the stuff in the normal aisle is not enough moisture and the ethnic aisle is too much moisture (yeah i've definately been there and done that).

first i found "Curly Girl the Handbook" by Lorraine Massey about $9 at Barnes and Noble and they usu. have in stock. This book told me a better way to take care of my hair and the curls that I had lost due to hormonal changes with pregnancies, started to come back.

then i found www.mixedchicks.net (please make sure that you notice that the site is a .net) These two women who started this company have had to mix and match and combine products their whole lives to get just the right stuff for their curls, then they decided to take their ideas to a lab, get it right, and start their own company. You can buy their stuff online or at select salons. It is well worth it.
here's the videos on their products.
http://www.mixedchicks.net/videos.html

If you are in Augusta, Ga the place to get these is from www.stacyahill.com. Stacy is awesome with ALL hair types. she's located in the salon of Southern Accents Salon & Spa at 122 Old Evans Rd. martinez 30907. From intersection of Bobby Jones and Wash., she is on the right JUST PAST the 1st light where you turn to go to the post office.

How do I give everyone a heart attack?

2010-01-23T23:38:00.000-08:00

I cut my hair!

MORMON RESTAURANTS-- lol

2010-01-14T10:20:00.000-08:00

I was just sent this and couldn't help myself so I had to post it.

Announced:

Plans to open Mormon-themed restaurants!

There is an idea floating around Utah, Arizona, Idaho and California

for a chain of non-pretentious Mormon-themed restaurants called

“The Steak Center” (Where There's Never a Dry, Boring Meating!).

Each Steak Center will have one enormous dining area with basketball

hoops at both end and folding metal chairs and long tables covered
plastic tablecloths.

The Steak Centers will not have hostesses, but greeters -- men in
their seventies will meet you at the door and talk like they have
known you all your life.

The main menu items for lunch and dinner will be:

Porterhouse Rockwell Steak

Primary Rib

Poor Wayfaring Pan of Beef

Parsley P. Pratt Funeral Potatoes

Eliza R. Snow crab (in season)

And It Came to Pasta

Kraft MacaMoroni and Cheese..

Breakfast items will include:

Pearls of Great Rice

Frosted Minivans

Adam-ondi-Omelettes

Also available In Our Lovely Desserts:

Fast Sundaes

Gadianton Cobbler

Laman Meringue Pie (just sinful!)

The waiters will be 12- and 13-year-old boys wearing white shirts and
their fathers' ties...

At the end of the night the customers will be asked to help fold up the chairs and tables and vacuum the floor.

Franchises are selling faster than Sunbeams on Skittles!

Get yours while they last!

update in the IUD saga from june 2008

2010-01-09T15:24:00.000-08:00

If you look back into june of 2008 you see this whole saga of trying getting the Paragard IUD (interuterine device) instead of the Merina IUD. Then trying find an Dr. who could get my insurance to agree. I ended up going to Dr. G (dr. idiot) because his office said that they had approval from my ins.
After having the Paragard IUD (copper, no hormones) put in, against the Dr.'s suggestion and opinion, I was supposed to have a reg. period with maybe a little heavier bleeding. However, I had no bleeding!! After a few months, I started freaking out and thinking that Dr. Idiot had changed IUDs on me. I thought that when I was staring at the ceiling, that he decided to switch IUDs on me and put in the Merina. So I called his office and asked for a copy of my records, as a new patient I prob. only had maybe 3-5 pages. they said the cost would be $25, yeah I don't think so. I looked up the laws online and they could only charge me $0.20 a page to that they refuted that they had a standard fee and didn't care what the law said. So I called my reg. ob/gyn, Dr. H, and talked to them about my concerns. They were willing to contact Dr. Idiots office and request my records since it was free that way. They got my records and said that Dr. G had put the Paragard IUD, that I requested, in me but didn't know why i wasn't bleeding. An ultrasound wouldn't work to tell the difference between the two and an x-ray wouldn't either since the copper on the Paragard is so infinitesimal that it wouldn't show. Dr. H has a new Dr. in his practice and the newbie said that it was possible, rare, but possible for this to happen in a nursing mom.
I walked away still not sure of the truth, after all i had done online research about the possibility of nursing and having the Paragard causing no period but came up with nothing. Several months went by and I was taking periodic pregnancy test (thank goodness they are $1 from Dollar General and the Dollar Tree), which kept coming out neg.
Aparently, I am abnormal. ok quit laughing yes, I know, you've know that all along. so even though i could breastfeed and still have a period; breastfeed, take hormonal pills and still have a period, I apparently don't have a period when I breastfeed and have the Paragard in. For the last several months, since i started to wean kaiya, I have finally started to have a period of med. to heavy flow. Usually the first 2 days are the heaviest then it lightens up to a med. flow. I
Once I started having my period, I felt really bad for badmouthing Dr.G. It's just that he seemed so sure that he knew what was better for me than I did, even though I had done my research and told him so. So in the end, he did do what I wanted and even though his office said they had approval for my IUD apparently they didn't because a yr. later they sent me a $720 bill for it. Yeah I haven't paid it. I'll get around to it eventually, just frustrated that they weren't able to do what they said when it comes to the bill. ah life is just full of frustrations.

Book of Mormon Trading Cards

2009-12-30T21:04:00.000-08:00

hey all, any mormons, i got this e-mail from my Stake Relief Society President about her son. These are so awesome!!!!

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to share with all of you something really fun that my son, Sam, has done. They are Book of Mormon Trading cards! Available through:

♫ http://tinyurl.com/bomcards

I'm just so proud of my boy and wanted to share it with everyone I knew, well, almost!

Have a great day!

Valerie Wilson

frosty

2009-12-23T07:11:00.000-08:00

role reversal

2009-12-23T07:09:00.000-08:00

heard today from talia

2009-12-22T08:48:00.001-08:00

"my hair doesn't need to grow any longer, cause now it's down to my tiny boobs."

oh my gosh! it was just too funny

kira pointed these things out:
1. that she thinks her hair doesn't need to grow any longer
2. that she realizes that her "boobs" are smaller than mine
3. that she thinks she has boobs and said boobs

not quite PG

2009-12-22T07:58:00.000-08:00

2009-12-21T04:53:00.000-08:00

For all those who have cats

2009-12-18T15:08:00.000-08:00

2009-12-10T21:51:00.000-08:00

finally! a new update!!!

2009-12-05T11:51:00.000-08:00

well all is normal, ok well as normal as it gets around here. lol
this past sat., 'Nae, jeremy and their family were going up to Cullman, Al to visit John and Tearney Fallows (old friends) and then decided that since they were in the car and traveling anyway -- what was 5 more hours to come visit me. I'm so glad they did, we all had fun. 'Nae brought eggrolls and fried them. they were way more meat than veggies. They left sun. evening to go home and toby left early that afternoon to go on a 3 day business trip.

on mon. my friend, heather, came down to visit me. she and her family are from australia and currently are living in north carolina. i haven't seen her in almost 14 yrs. so it was cool to finally see her and her kids after all this time. they left late tues. afternoon.

wed. was our homeschool co-op from 9am -noon. i had the highschool science class show and tell what they had written or drawn on the sheets of paper that we had made in class a week or 2 ago. making paper was fun, but i burned the motor on my blender making paper pulp. lol yeah you need paper from a paper shredder or to tear up paper and put it in a food processor, otherwise the torn pieces of paper eventually clump up no matter how much water you add and then the effort of mixing all that kills you blender. oh well, so then i bought another blender for $3 from salvation army. that lasted about 2 wks. before i killed it last night trying to chop/mix shredded soap with powdered clay as part of making my clothes detergent. lol now i have 2 blender jars and nothing to use them with.

our cat persephone died the other night, she was still in rigor when we found her on the front porch wed. evening. so thrus., i called my friend tina kendall and said that we would take one of her kittens. she had 2 twin orange-beige male kittens that they called fred and george (get it? redhead twins? harry potter?) yeah i thought it was funny. i didn't want o split them, but somebody had already claimed fred. tina brought george over thurs. afternoon. all the kids love him, but he seems to love toby best and kaiya keeps picking up george. we tell her to be nice and put him down. she either says no or just drops him, thankfully he's a cat and since she's so short to the ground then it's not much of a drop.

i am making cloth diapers for kira (she's been great about it since it's taken me a yr. to make josies but i'm throwing in several more for her patience), heather, and a new friend shelley. ok i'm actually making some changes on shellley's diaper that she asked me to fix. toby is trying to get the kids to help him decorate for christmas, while we are listening to all of our christmas cd's. it's a nice sunny day outside with a nice breeze so all the windows are open.

2009-12-05T11:05:00.000-08:00

How to peel potato WITHOUT anything

2009-11-06T11:54:00.000-08:00

ok, so this was forwarded to me from Sis. Davis and it's taken me FOREVER to watch the video, but when i did my jaw dropped on how easy it is to peel a potato without a peeler or any special tool, just water.
check it out!

YouTube - Dawn Wells Potato Peeling Video - No need for a peeler
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4W0qIPJmoo

quick update

2009-07-10T10:19:00.000-07:00

in case anyone is wondering where we have been, since we dropped off the face of the web we've been hanging in there. I made 11 costumes for the girl munchkins, a tinman costume at last minute and then we had a week of practice just before the performance of oz. I didn't send my 12 yr. old to Young Women's camp because the stake young women presidency didn't want any leaders other than themselves because they felt that any other leaders would do stuff for the girls. So they have the 16-18 yr. olds not only teaching the classes at camp, which I'm okay with, but also in command of all the younger girls, which is what I can't handle having a bunch of 16-18 yr. olds babysitting a couple hundred grils for atleast 4 days with only 4 women to help out. So instead we had 2 camp outs at our house the week of girls camp...one for girls (all the girls ages 8-11yrs. and a few nonmember friends) and one for boys (all the cub scouts and a few friends their age). then cub scout day camp where I spent most of the week volunteering driving and hr. each way, and running around every 2 hrs. to spray down one of our scouts with sunscreen because he is taking meds that make him extremely photo sensitive. now we are trying to refi our VA loan on our house and it has taken a few weeks to get all the stuff together, scan items as jpgs then copy andpaste into open office and export as pdf to the lenders. at the rate we locked in it will only save us about $116 but then we will be able to skip 2 months of mortgage payments and payoff some debts.

I was recently called as the Home, Family and Personal Enrichment leader at church in our little branch. I was asked to put together a seminar on preparedness, unfortunately some of the women I asked to teach could only do it before July 13th. So I've had 2 1/2 wks. to throw something together by July 7th, which was tues. we had about 16 people show up, which is fantastic for our little branch. Now I am preparing to set up a temp. campsite and talk about what pioneers did when setting up the campsite and what they did for our branch pioneer day, this sat the 11th. Then I need to decide what materials to use for homeschooling this next yr. in Aug. so that's what we've been up to. I now have a charger for my camera and should be able to update my blog with photos, esp. since we've had a couple birthdays during all of this and Nathaniel's is on the 17th this month, and everything before I start FINALLY sewing the diapers that Kira paid me to make before I leave for a family reunion in Alabama at the end of July. We're really excited because JaNae put it together and we all chipped in to bring Grandma from California and we have family helping us get down to Ala. since fianances are strapped right now.

kibbles and bits

2009-04-07T00:23:00.001-07:00

First thing you wash in the shower? my pits

What color is your favorite hoodie? - hoodies suck!

Would you kiss the last person you kissed again? lol, yeah my hubby

Do you plan outfits? - yeah when i think about it, otherwise just whatever is handy

How are you feeling RIGHT now? - at 3am...hungry

Whats the closest thing to you that's red? - box that wendi sent my jewelery in

Tell me about the last dream you remember having?- dreams, i don't have no stinkin dreams

Did you meet anybody new today? - No

What are you craving right now? -chicken salad in croisants and broccoli salad

What comes to mind when I say cabbage? - egg rolls, boiled cabbage with ham and lots of butter.

Are you emotional? i have 6 kids, what do you think?

Have you ever counted to 1,000? yep

Do you bite into your ice cream or just lick it? both

Do you like your hair? yes, i don't have to pay for it to do anything

Do you like yourself? some days better than others

Would you go out to eat with George W. Bush? what eat with a politician? no, don't care if i did vote for him.

What are you listening to right now?- the white noise of the modem and router

Are your parents strict? no. fun to irritate-yes

Would you go sky diving? - You're some kind of commedian, right?

Do you like cottage cheese?yes..by itself, with pears, in other foods, with sunflower seeds, with tuna

Have you ever met a celebrity?- A few. the host off American Idol and Pauly shore (or I saw him for 3 ft. away anyway)
Do you rent movies often? enough to start renting from netflicks

Is there anything sparkly in the room you're in? does shiny laminated plastic count? or light bulbs?

How many countries have you visited? germany, canada

Have you made a prank phone call? - yep

Ever been on a train? as a kid, then as an adult from hiedelburg to augsburg and back

Brown or white eggs? - Who cares?

Do you have a cell-phone? - yes- that is my life line

Do you use chap stick? - nope

Do you own a gun? no, but occasionally think about it

Can you use chop sticks? - if i can stab it, yeah.

Who are you going to be with tonight? my hubby is he doesn't kick me out of bed for snoring. lol

Are you too forgiving?- sometimes

Ever been in love? yep, married the right one.

What is your best friend doing tomorrow? don't know

Ever have cream puffs? -yep

Last time you cried? - sun. during conference

What was the last question you asked? what kind of snacks do you want?

Favorite time of the year? fall

Do you have any tattoos? no, needles scare me too much...even after having kids and epidurals, besides that's a lot of pain, not into that even when not on my meds.

Are you sarcastic? -Yes

Have you ever seen The Butterfly Effect? - no.

Ever walked into a wall? -yep

Favorite color? - Purple

Have you ever slapped someone? -my mom, once as a teen. notice only once

Is your hair curly? -yes

What was the last CD you bought? - Darius Rucker

Do looks matter? - to a degree.

Could you ever forgive a cheater? - i can't answer that.

Is your phone bill sky high? nope have a great cell plan

Do you like your life right now? - some days

Do you sleep with the TV on? - no.

Can you handle the truth? - sometimes

Do you have good vision? - it's a little sketchy at night driving for long hours

Do you hate or dislike more than 3 people? - depends on the day and time

How often do you talk on the phone? -all the dang time

The last person you held hands with? -Talia

What are you wearing? - jeans, shirt, no shoes, frizzy hair

What is your favorite animal? - any baby animal, it's when they get bigger then i have a prob.

Where was your Facebook Profile Picture taken at? in my schoolroom at home

Can you hula hoop? - lol, yeah right!

Do you have a job? does homeschooling kids count? how about domestic goddess? nope, then how about full time mom?

What was the most recent thing you bought? -groceries and dove dark chocolate

Have you ever crawled through a window? - lol, yeah. once 7 mo. preg.

Custom made Jewelery by Wendi Decker

2009-04-02T07:40:00.000-07:00

So I've told you about my friend Wendi who makes and sells beaded Jewelery at http://the-two-thieves.livejournal.com/ and http://thetwothieves.blogspot.com/
anyway i found a fantastic pendant and then some beads but couldn't make up my mind, so i just bought them all. while i am crafty at sewing, beading just blows my mind and i'm not creative that way. so i sent them off to wendi, along with a necklace that i needed restrung, and some cute beads and buttons just for her. she sent me back some awesome jewelery. Now i did pay her, just my price was a little different since i supplied the supplies. However, i did buy some of her earrings that she made because they were just too cute and she was really nice and threw in an extra pair that she had made out of the 20's buttons that i sent! Anyway, i want to show off what she made I took a couple pics. and wanted to share them.

why i don't update often any more

2009-04-02T07:26:00.000-07:00

ok so besides homeschooling my kids, going to a homeschool co-op group once a week and teaching a cooking course for the kids there, we have church for the kids on wed. nights ages 8 and up. For theyounger kids who have both parents involved in this, then I have gotten persmission to run the nursery for these kids since i'm there anyway with the rest of mine. Then glutton for punishment that i am and i just couldn't resist helping, I will be sewing little girl munchkin costumes, a Glenda costume with crown and wand, head pieces, and slippers for our Homeschool community theatre. They are putting on the Wizard of Oz this year. karina is a snow sprite, yes that is a new character added to sprinkle the snow on the main characters in the poppy field. The snow sprites will be doing a ballet dance that a profession 11 yr. old dancer had choreographed. Wayne will be one of the Wicked Witch's castle guards. None of my other kids wanted to participate until just recently and then it was too late. They will be performing at:

Jabez Sanford Hardin Performing Arts Center

Located inside the Columbia County Library

720 N. Belair Rd * Evans, GA 30809

Date:

Friday, June 5, 2009

Showtimes:

4:00pm and 7:00pm

Admission is free with charitable donation to:

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

and/or

Golden Harvest Food Bank of Augusta

so if you can't be there for the performance but would like to support our cause click on the links. if there's not the info for Golden Harvest then go to www.goldenharvest.org/donate/. We appreciate your support.

Toby is GRRREAT!/New Flooring

2009-04-02T05:53:00.000-07:00

so we all know that my hubby, toby, is great but i do have to brag on him. i just want to say how much i appreciate and love my husband. I'm not an easy person to deal with all the time, but he does it well and still loves me. he is a terrific husband and father. while i can do crafty things, i'm not like aunt hannah who can sew and remodel her own bathroom, so I leave all that stuff up to toby. During the 1st 2 weekends of march, my man replace the carpet in the dining room. yep that's right the previous owners had carpet in the dining room and to make the problem worse, it was a light beige! As you can imagine with kids eating in there, it became a nightmare to keep it clean. So toby finally was able to lay more laminate wood flooring down in the dining room. this now connects the flooring from the den that he laid a year ago. In the kitchen, the previous owner had layed laminate sheeting and did a bad job because it was coming up and buckling. We decided on laminate stick tiles for the kitchen since it handles water better. Toby was very meticulous in all the prep work after all this sets his OCD for things being perfect off. I helped him find all the squeaks in the floor (come on, i'm heavy and big and he's too little to set them off).
for anybody who doesn't know (like me), squeaks in the floor are from the floor or subflooring being nailed down, then after time (weather causing the floor to swell and contact) the nails start to loosen. when the nails loosen they start to come out of the floor joists and when you step on that area the squeak is the nail being pushed back into the wood by your weight. So to fix this problem then toby took some decking screws and screwed several of them into the floor around the problem areas. he did this after he foundout how far apart the floor joists were so that he could mark the floor, this allowed him to make sure he was putting the screws into the joist and not thin air. So now the floors don't squeak!!!!!
so a thankyou goes out to my wonderful father-in-law, Chuck, who had toby help him do many projects and repairs in their house. Thank you for doing a great job teaching toby these skills.
Then there is toby's own natural ability to read information on doing a job and picking it up quickly. he is just too cool!

Happy Belated 35th Birthday Toby

2009-04-01T21:30:00.000-07:00

ok so my post is belated, but we did celebrate his birthday on his birthday. His birthday was the 22nd and on a sunday. I remembered to buy the whipped topping cake on fri. and put it in the freezer along with choc. icecream. So sunday came around and we went to church. We decided later to go fishing as a present for toby. He hadn't been fishing in a long while and I was along to try to keep kids out of his hair while everyone fished. I finally tried to cast the kids poles once or twice. After we got home and ate dinner, we had cake and icecream and opened his presents. Since his birthday is during tax season then he gets bigger presents since we have the money. So he got a framing nailer, 2 x-men dvd's, a shirt, a "charming tails" statue (he collects them), and 2 tickets to see Hootie and the Blowfish, Darius Rucker (yes i know he's part of the 1st group), and the Zack Brown band. Every year during "masters week" (think golf) they have a concert at a smaller golf course as a drive for dough $$$, which is then donated to local charities. So this year will be our 1st year going (after living here 8 1/2 yrs.) and we have a friend willing to babysitt all of our kids. Yeah!!!
so as tribute to toby, we have some pics of him, oh and i had to throw one in of kaiya eating some of the cake....it matches her outfit.

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY KAIYA

2009-03-31T10:58:00.000-07:00

ok so this past saturday was kaiya's 1st birthday. wow! my youngest is now one, and i have no plans in the future for more, but i haven't made any permanent choices yet, just and IUD.
kaiya loves to walk along the furniture and has for months. lately she has been taking 1-3 steps on her own before she goes back to her more secure travel method of crawling. she is now a camera hound and will pose for pics most of the time ( she looked up by herself and i got lucky and snapped a pic). over the last 1 1/2 months she has been eating solid foods( my kids have such a short time of eating mushed foods). she still nurses, wil sometimes drink froma bottle, but refuses to touch a cup. kaiya is usually quiet, except when we want her to be like during church, the movies, saying prayer, when i want to go to sleep, etc. lol she is jsut so joyful. if the back door is left open then she will try to crawl outside, she likes to swing and play in the dirt (gabriel even takes her out and plays with her in the dirt--ok it's dirt and he's a boy,but still).

Life at the MOVIES

2009-03-12T21:08:00.000-07:00

I know you have all been wondering why i haven't posted and if i've been (gasp!) busy? yeah i've been busy. did you know that i have mad sewing skills? it's true, I do, thanks mom. i don't use them a lot, but when i do...watch out. So besides schooling my crazy kids, running after then, stopping fights, cleaning up and making them clean up, and catching up on laundry just to turn around and have HUGE piles of it again I decided to volunteer to make costumes for the little girl munchkins in OZ and a glenda costume too. not to mention head pieces for everyone including those for girls i'm not sewing costumes for. then you have the reg. wed. homeschool co-op meeting and since i have to go into town for that then i go run all my town errands. wed. night we have cubscouts and activity day girls for my 2 oldest. today i had to quickly make a mock-up of one of the costumes, take my oldest to her oz rehearsal (it's norm. on thurs.), run around looking for some fabric, then went insane and took all the kids to the $2 theatre to see "Bolt". we enjoyed it and i'm glad we pretty much had the theatre to ourselves, ok there were 6 other people, because my kids could NOT sit still and i ended up letting the baby crawl up and down the walk way to keep her quiet. then the 3 youngest had to get up and move several times too and not just to put their trash away everytime they were done with something. So good thing not many people, good thing that after ordering a large soda, spilling it, getting a new one and a large popcorn that the movie people gave me free water size cups to split my soda and free little black treys (nacho cheese king) so I could split my popcorn with all the kids so that nobody was fighting over the drink and popcorn. needless to say i've learned my lesson for the next 3 yrs., no more taking my kids to the Movies and this is why we rent. lol

Den and School Room

2009-02-28T07:40:00.000-08:00

ok so for over a yr. we have had nothing on the the multitude of windows in our den where my sewing stuff is with two doors to the outside and school room, which we finally organized with $16 bookcases from wal-mart and a computer area my hubby made from old partitions from work. the previous owner used both rooms as a sun room. I wanted color but i also wanted to let the light in and i didn't want to line anything! so i found some fantastic blue panels at Fred's that were on sale for $6 ea. they were 84 in. long. I bought 12 of them for $72 but buying them a little at a time. I also bought some light brown sheers from there for $4 ea. reg. price. I bought 8 of those for $24. I have a total of 8 windows in both rooms, 10 if you count the two in the outside doors. Each connecting window shares a panel, so that saved me from buying several extra panels. I hung the curtains higher than the windows, since i had several shorter, that way they all look the same height. i cut off the excess and hemmed the bottoms on both the panels and sheers. i took the extra fabric from the sheers, folded and sewed it to make tieback that i thumbtacked to the wall. then i used extra fabric from the panels and sheers and made a one piece curtain for each door window that looked like all my other windows. the doors are metal so i had to use magnetic rods and thumbtacks in the window frame for the tie backs. extra fabric from the panels also made a quick table cloth for a round table. then i added a $15 vase in matching colors and $6 in fake flowers. not bad for a total of $117 for 2 rooms and 10 windows. I finally did it all the day before Thanksgiving in 2008. ok so i really started that evening around 9pm and stayed up all night finishing it by being dissatisfied and then coming up with the tie backs, hanging cafe rods for the sheers and figuring out how to hang sheers and panels on the door windows with just one rod. after all i wanted it to be pretty for family who were coming to visit.

welcome to motherhood!

2009-02-23T09:18:00.000-08:00

my husband, toby, has been sick lately, bad enough to stay home from work and take meds which he does not do.
so the last few days, i have left some or all the kids home with him while i took children to play practice, running errands, etc. I let him sleep most of the day and then would leave for 2-4 hrs. so sat. night as i was getting ready to leave for the adult session of stake conference. toby looked at me and said " you know i've been sick for the last couple days and you have left me with the kids each day. i'm sick and can't handle that." at that point i looked and him and said "welcome to motherhood!"

Peek-a-boo, we see you!

2009-02-17T15:25:00.000-08:00

Can you tell who's eyes belong to who or even what sex they are? Can you guess how much time i wasted getting the right pics?

Boycotting Valentin'es day or did we?

2009-02-16T08:40:00.000-08:00

i didn't get flowers or chocolate but that's because toby and i decided to boycott for ourselves this year since we were low on money, didn't want to pay a sitter. however we ended up going out to eat at pizza hut with friends, that toby helped move closer to us, after a long day of packing and unpacking. so we ended up eating out and their kids came over to sit ours as a favor. it was a nice night.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY/ HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSIE

2009-02-14T10:18:00.000-08:00

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY to everyone!!!

my niece's birthday is today. josie is 1. i make a really cute valentines diaper for her per kira's request. it was great and looks cute, just one prob......i forgot to sew the middle layer to the outside layer . thankfully it's an easy fix, kira just has to cut a slit in the p.u.l. (poly urethane laminate) aka water proof fabric so she can put the soaker in the right place. it's a good thing that fabric doesn't fray. kira's very forgiving since i haven't made any diapers in 6months and even then it was a first try. lol so here is the front and back of the diaper.

New Beginnings or an intro to Young Women's

2009-02-06T06:01:00.000-08:00

I took karina to New Beginnings on wed. night. oh i feel old. she turns 12 this april. ok so for those who don't know "New Beginnings" is a nice little ceremony at church, where girls who are turning 12 that year are introduced to the Young Women's program. It is also a refresher course for those who are already in it. What they do is talk to the girls and their parents about the goals and values that the girls are going to be working on from ages 12-18 in their personal progress book that parents and leaders have to sign off in. It's similar to boy scouts in that respect. There are 3 age levels, 12-14 is beehive, 14-16 is miamaid, and 16-18 is laural. At each level there are several goals to accomplish (like in scouting) these are usually spiritual and service oriented. a young woman must complete six Value Experiences and one Value Project in each of the seven Young Women values.

A young woman should complete the six experiences in a value before doing the project in that value.
A parent or Young Women leader should approve the project before she begins.
A young woman reviews her completed work with a parent or a leader, who initials that experience in her Personal Progress book.
When all six experiences and the project in a value are completed, a leader may present an achievement emblem to be placed in the back of the Personal Progress book.

when they accomplish each level they earn a medallion, and if they earn all three medallions then they earn the Young Womanhood medallion which is equal to an Eagle Scout award.

The Young Women theme helps each young woman understand her identity, purpose, and destiny as a daughter of God. Young women and their leaders repeat the theme during Sunday opening exercises and at other Young Women gatherings. the Young Women theme is:
We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him. We will “stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places” (Mosiah 18:9) as we strive to live the Young Women values, which are:

Faith
Divine Nature
Individual Worth
Knowledge
Choice and Accountability
Good Works
Integrity and
Virtue

We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values, we will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.

value and definition from the Young Women's personal progress book.
Faith: Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true (Alma 32:21). I am a daughter of a Heavenly Father who loves me, and I will have in his eternal plan, which centers in Jesus Christ, my Savior.
Divine Nature: You are literally a spirit daughter of heavenly parents with a divine nature and an eternal destiny. Be partakers of the divine nature. … Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity
(2 Peter 1:4–7). I have inherited divine qualities which I will strive to develop.
Individual Worth: Woman is God’s supreme creation. Only after the earth had been formed, after the day had been separated from the night, after the waters had been divided from the land, after vegetation and animal life had been created, and after man had been placed on the earth, was woman created; and only then was the work pronounced complete and good. A conviction that you are a daughter of God gives you a feeling of comfort in your self-worth. It means that you can find strength in the balm of Christ. It will help you meet the heartaches and challenges with faith and serenity. Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God
(D&C 18:10). I am of infinite worth with my own divine mission which I will strive to fulfill.
Knowledge: Seek learning, even by study and also by faith (D&C 88:118). I will continually seek opportunities for learning and growth.
Choice and Accountability: Choose you this day whom ye will serve; … but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15). I will choose good over evil and will accept responsibility for my choices.
Good Works: Give service, such as preparing meals, reading or listening to younger children, repairing clothing, or helping a brother or sister. Comfort others or help them bear their burdens. Therefore let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven (3 Nephi 12:16). I will help others and build the kingdom (of God) through righteous service.
Integrity: This includes avoiding gossip; avoiding inappropriate jokes, swearing and profanity, and being light-minded about sacred subjects; being completely truthful; being morally clean; and being honest, dependable, and trustworthy in your schoolwork and other activities. Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me (Job 27:5). I will have the moral courage to make my actions consistant with my knowledge of right and wrong.
Virtue: Morality, goodness, or uprightness. Virtue is a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral standards. It encompasses chastity and moral purity. Of all the creations of the Almighty, there is none more beautiful, none more inspiring than a lovely daughter of God who walks in virtue with an understanding of why she should do so, who honors and respects her body as a thing sacred and divine, who cultivates her mind and constantly enlarges the horizon of her understanding, who nurtures her spirit with everlasting truth. Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly. (D&C 121: 45)

needless to say after typing all this, i realize that there is a lot for me to work on too, if i am to set a better example for my children.

long lost family

2009-02-01T11:27:00.000-08:00

when i was around 13 my father married my 1st step-mother, peggy. she came into the marriage with 2 boys. joey who was near my age and chris who was near ian's age (5?). we ( us 5 kids) were fist introduced to the boys at their grandma's house and andalusa, al. she lived on the river and we all went to go swimming and splashing each other. as we were playing with her 2 boys, the thought came to me that they felt just like my real brothers, then later we found out pops and peggy were engaged. peggy was really nice, but pops and peggy were both on the rebound and still had issues to work out...so it only lasted 6 months. (i'm sure we would've had clashes as any kid does, if they had stayed together). however, i grew to love her and her boys in the few months were together. years later, i saw joey at a youth conference dance, it was so nice to see him again, but that was the last contact i had.
pops and arline just had lunch with peggy, her mom, and younger sister last week. finally after all these years i am now in contact with them again. it helps that peggy and her boys moved back to alabama and now live in dothan where my sisters kira and karen live. i am so excited that the next time we go home to alabama that we will be able to visit with them. it is thrilling to be able to catch up with them after all this time. i still consider them family. peggy was so nice as to include a pic of when she and the boys entered our family. so now we have a before and after pic. so here's pics of chris, peggy, and joey in that order.

why city folks shouldn't move to the country (actual poster)!!!

2009-02-01T11:24:00.000-08:00

handmade jewelery

2009-01-29T11:35:00.000-08:00

tina's earrings are one of a kind, a mutal highschool friend, wendi decker miller, makes jewelery and she made them. if you like her stuff go to http://thetwothieves.blogspot.com/ or find the link to wendi's store on my page or to see more of the jewelery pieces she's made check out her photobucket at http://s288.photobucket.com/albums/ll172/grayeyedgrrl/ look at pages 2-8 and 13. she uses antique earing, buttons, beads and what ever else catches her fancy. you can even ask her to make something, like i am. just wanted to put it out there. so here are tina's earrings and some of my favs. that wendi has made.

Lunch at Olive Garden

2009-01-29T10:39:00.000-08:00

it has become a new tradition in our family for the women to go to olive garden for lunch on the day after christmas. I usually invite a few friends that i only get to see during the holidays. this last yr. the only ones able to come were me and kaiya, jaNae, mom, kira, amanda (jacob's wife) and their son liam,and to quote her "one of my oldest friends" (then mom and nae had to make the emphasis on oldest, which flustered poor tina). anyway, tina ross dalton (ok i only add the ross part for me). I am so happy we both made it to the luncheon. I was rushing from alabama, the day before and she was rushing up the day of from visiting family in florida. I have only seen her once since i got married in 1995 and that was at royal's wedding about 8 yrs. ago. her husband chris was so nice to take their boys and eat at a different table, so that she could sit with us. I'm sorry that i didn't take the chance to meet them and i'm thankful for the time she took from visiting with her family to eat with us before she saw them. she and i became friends when my family moved back to the states in 1984 and we went to church and school together. she is so quiet and stands back to let more loud and obnoxious friends take center stage (me). sometimes she's a mouse but she knows when to stand up and be heard. she is a skater girl and totally fun to be around. the greatest compliment that i can think to giv her is that she reminds me of her mom. so here is a pic of tina and i and a pic of the rest of us after left (we didn't think to take a group photo until then, sorry).

visiting at mom's/ picture heavy

2009-01-28T12:30:00.000-08:00

all of us kids went over to mom and dad's house, the day after hanging with pops at 'nae's. we agreed to meet at mom's at 9am and most of us showed up around 10am, since it was so early i decided to get stuff to make breakfast. I started then Toby and Ben helped and took over, which was quite ok. NOTE: mom's oven does not work right, it runs tooo hot. needless to say it burned the bottoms of the first batch of "whomp" bisquits. we all had a good time, eating, playing games, having the kids play outside. the boys used the empty water barrels as bombs, throwing them from the "castle". mom was able to get a few pics of all the grandkids, minus royal's and jason's. with mom's editing skills she may be able to edit them in, you never know. it was great to be able to hang out with my family. we had my family, 'nae's family, jacob's family, ian and jessica, miles and jotty (they went to play paintball and came at the end), and mom and dad. dad even stayed up late after his night shift so that we could all see him.

ok here is the list of grandkids in the photo left to right starting in the back row, parents name in parenthesis.
Back row: karina holding kaiya(anna's), wayne (anna's), bailey holding liam (jacob's), daniel (jacob's), brice (janae's), amry (janae's) holding josephine aka josie (kira's)
Front row: nathaniel, gabriel, and talia (all 3 are anna's), maryann(jacob's), wesley and carlise (both kira's), and cian (janae's)

here are royal's 3, they are in missouri. oldest to youngest: grace, sienna, and james aka little jim

Jason's little girl, mila, that the Lord finally blessed them with after 10 yrs.

and now for the rest of the pictures:

solomon's park or a visit with melinda

2009-01-28T12:21:00.000-08:00

we went to dothan one day so that toby could help ben (kira's hubby) replace part of an outside door frame. while we were there, kira's kids needed a nap and mine wanted to go to the park, so i called my good friend melinda, who i've know since 8th grade, and we met up at the park. the kids had a great time running all over the place. there is a small creek that runs around most of the park and that day it had lots of goldfish in it and my kids had to try to get some. they were very disappointed when i wouldn't let them continue to try and told then that they couldn't keep any because it would be hard to keep them while on vacation and then try a car ride home. besides toby said no more pets and we don't have the tanks anymore. gosh, darn! lol so the photos are a little dark, but i'm too lazy to fix them, sorry.

hanging out with the reczniks

2009-01-28T12:01:00.000-08:00

Jim and RaKel finally caught up with me at my mom's house. she made an awesome bowl that she gave me (she is an awesome artist, you ought to see her paintings and her sculptures aren't to bad either) and he had to include a grapefruit, his way of saying i'm a fruit. that's ok, i am a fruit and i like grapefruit so there. : P it got interesting as they decided to leave. my brothers Miles and Jotty and JaNae's and Kira's families were there and all of our kids decided to climb jungle Jim. RaKel is so happy that the Lord finally blessed them with GaVen (orange shirt) since now jim has a play pal. lol He was really awesome with the kids. meanwhile the rest of the guys decided to toss a football around. I've known RaKel since we were teenagers, she has a fun loving quirky personality after all look who she married. they are an awesome family and gaVen is just too cute!

ever have one of those days?

2009-01-27T13:37:00.001-08:00

last tues. as i was leaving early (2:30pm)for a fisrt time appt. with a new dr. for kaiya (so we had to be there early), i stopped to pick up the mail from our mailbox across the street and noticed we had a flat front tire. so i turned around and drove back up our sandy driveway. yeah most of our lot has sandy soil. so fussing because i woul be late, i got out what i needed to change my flat, thank goodness daddy (jim) taught me as a teen how to change a tire. ah, then i found out that toby took my "T" bar out of the van. fortunately, mom and dad had given us an extendable tire iron and that was in the car. I got the car jacked up, couldn't loosen the lug nuts until i stomped on the tire iron. things went smoothly until i tried to take the tire off, then the car jack slipped and fell. now the car was only a few inches above the sand. i had already called the office and yelled at toby for taking the "T" bar and he was on his way to switch cars with me. so i reposition the jack, get the car up, take the tire off, get the spare from under the car, finally get through to the dr. office to say we will be late, and ...... find out the spare is flat!!!
toby got there a few minutes later, i left the kids with him and took kaiya to the dr., took the flat front tire so i could get it fixed. I didn't walk out of the dr. office until 5pm after getting there at 3:30pm, then across the street to drop off prescriptions and give them the prescr. insurance card, then off to have the tire patched. it took an hr. to patch the tire, then run back to the pharmacy have some confusion and spend 20 min. reminding the lady that kaiya does have prescr. insurance and putting that info back into the computer again oh and wait now we need to put water in the antibiotics and oh new we need to print new tags for the prescriptions. then it's a mad dash 45min. away to home and personal enrichment activity at church. whew!!!

another use for the water cooler

2009-01-27T12:20:00.000-08:00

look what i saw. just another use for the water cooler. lol

hanging at 'Nae's

2009-01-27T11:45:00.000-08:00

we also hung out at 'Nae's once or twice and we were fortunate that Ian and jessica (my bro and sis-in-law) and pops and arline could come. we had a good time eating pizza and on another night spaghetti. ian brought some awesome treats the 1st night. 'nae and i got into a tickle fight (she was tickling me and i was trying to fend her off). so i'm including some pics from that sumo wrestle. ok my fav. pic is of jessica (20+), amry (10) and karina (11) all in bare feet.

Christmas evening

2009-01-27T11:25:00.001-08:00

so as soon as we were done opening presents at our house, we finished packing up and drove to alabama to spend the rest of the holidays with our families. so here's christmas eve at toby's dad's house. all the girls got jewelry, which we love! the boys loved the lincoln logs, iron man and walkie talkies. kaiya enjoyed her bear and soft blanket. I got all sort of things like a Nene Thomas fairy plate and a Native American mother and child, both things like to collect. toby got an outdoor knife/hatchet set which he was happy to get. we gave his dad 2 new photo albums since everyone constantly sends him photos and he had run out of photo albums. We had a great time while visiting at his dad's house over the holidays. Dixie, toby's oldest sister, came with her son-Michael (only 8 mo. younger than toby) and his girlfriend, and dixie's youngest daughter- Jade (who's 15--i think). Ricky was there (the oldest son) since he lives with dad. Nita and Sandy came often with their families and sandy's grandbaby. Chucky and his friend Dan brought the dogs over a few times. we were missing tracy's family and sandy's daughter shannon who's in hawaii right now. My mom let me borrow her scanner for several days so that i could scan all the photos in albums at my father-in-laws house. it's nice to get family history with the technology we have today. a couple night we played games after we put the kids to bed and we had a great time. All in all it was an extremely pleasant visit. I'm sorry we don't have more pics. from then.

christmas morning

2009-01-27T11:06:00.001-08:00

ok, ok, so it's been a month since christmas, but i'm just now finding the time to blog. so check it all out.
christmas morning, we opened presents and santa gifts at our house. Some of our favorites are: everyone got a game, but they like battleship the best. everyone got at least 1 movie, but "Howl's moving castle" from royal's family is a constant hit here. my mother-in-law gave all of my babies a christmas bear with the year they born embroidered on it, since she has passed on then i continued the tradition in her memory. all the kids got a webkinz, that they love to play with online. Gifts from royal's family (they gave to us this year) were big hits, everyone enjoyed the boys' gifts. toby has always wanted to start a santa collection, but he is very picky. Gabriel got an airplane carrier with airplanes and helicopters (he loves everything military) and had to take it with him to alabama.

An Apology / Husbands don't share everything

2009-01-27T10:13:00.000-08:00

Back in Nov. I had a huge hissy fit over Toby being invited late to his dad's 75th birthday party, where all the siblings were coming. it turns out that toby was invited well in advance, he just hadn't checked his e-mail until after the event and didn't bother to tell me until it came up again at christmas. So all my foot stomping, yelling, etc. was over nothing, because toby wasn't being slighted in the least. So I want to apologize to all of his family for my screaming and gnashing of teeth over it and to say that i'm sorry if i hurt your feelings by doing so. I really am sorry for talking bad and being a snot.

Soup's On

2009-01-05T12:09:00.000-08:00

my cousin was talking about how soup is her comfort food and how she like Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana. This is also a favorite of mine and I remembered that I had a recipe for it. So I wanted to share it. If you have a favorite soup recipe, I would love to try it so please e-mail it to me at the account i use for this blog: ahnah74@gmail.com, but please no spamming or other junk mail.

this recipe is from: http://www.tuscanreci0pes.com/recipes/olive-garden-zuppa-toscana.html

Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana

This is a much requested recipe on the site given its name! Someone who used to work at the Olive Garden sent in the original recipe and I've adapted it to serve just 6-8. Try it since it is really yummy!

To be honest, this recipe isn't very "Tuscan". It is a very good soup and hits the spot on cold winter days. I've included this and a few other Olive Garden-inspired recipes on the site for all of our visitors that enjoy eating at the restaurant chain. In my opinion, making these recipes at home makes them even better than the ones you eat at the restaurant! :)

Makes: 6-8 servings

INGREDIENTS

1 lb ground Italian sausage
1½ tsp crushed red peppers
1 large diced white onion
4 Tbsp bacon pieces
2 tsp garlic puree
10 cups water
5 cubes of chicken bouillon
1 cup heavy cream
1 lb sliced Russet potatoes, or about 3 large potatoes
¼ of a bunch of kale

Sauté Italian sausage and crushed red pepper in a large pot. Drain excess fat, refrigerate while you prepare other ingredients.

In the same pan, sauté bacon, onions and garlic for approxiamtly 15 mins. or until the onions are soft.
Mix together the chicken bouillon and water, then add it to the onions, bacon and garlic. Cook until boiling.

Add potatoes and cook until soft, about half an hour.
Add heavy cream and cook until thoroughly heated.
Stir in the sausage.
Add kale just before serving. Delicious!

Buon appetito!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2008-12-25T06:24:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS! WE hope you enjoy the holiday and remember that Christ is the reason for the season.

finally wearing it....and no it's not a muzzle

2008-12-21T20:49:00.000-08:00

so about 2 years ago, on our anniversary, i bought this cute floor length blue sparkly gown and it was even in my size. the problem, it has spaghetti straps. why is that a prob. you ask, well it's because of our faith. we like to be modestly covered (down to knees, above cleavage, not low cut in back or sides, no stomach showing, and over the shoulder--so at least cap sleeves). (now what you wear just for your hubby is another subject altogether). ok admittedly, i haven't always been the greatest at this, you know that cleavage thing gets me everytime...it's not like they(manufacturers) make decent shirts for women with big boobs. if you get it big enough to cover the boobs, then it's too big in other areas so then it falls forward and ....TADA-- cleavage!
anyway, for various reasons i haven't worn it. like last year because i had a broken leg and didn't want to try sitting in a wheelchair with my leg straight out infront of me wearing a straight dress. yeah, not a pretty picture. the year before it was because i wanted to loose some weight and look more svelte. this year i said the heck with it, i want to wear it and i have no place to wear it but church so i did. I found a cute necklace, earings, and bracelet set at Dollar General for $5 (a 2 yrs. after i bought the dress). then as i was going through my fabric, i found this fantastic silver fabric to make a bolero jacket out of, so i did. and true to anna trends, procrastinated until late last night. i even bought fabric to line it, but couldn't find it. i used it in one pic as a shawl when i found it this evening. anyway, i had to share feeling good and looking good for a fat mama of 6 kids.

decorating for christmas

2008-12-21T19:12:00.000-08:00

Toby's fav. holiday is christmas. he loves to decorate for it, so this year toby and i decided to take some pictures of the house, we all helped put it together. toby put up the tree, strung the lights and garland and wanted to leave it that way, but the kids had other ideas. they wanted the balls to go on the tree. (years ago when we first got married we bought a ton of glass balls for our tree and over the years even added to it, then we started having kids...lots of kids. soon we only had about 20 glass balls left after kids and cats got ahold of them, so we mailed them to ian who doesn't have any kids, ferrets and birds but no kids. then we bought lots of plastic shiny balls, i love plastic. what a great invention it is and now the plastic balls come in as many colors as the glass ones and you can't tell the difference most of the time.) Anyway, the kids love putting on the ornaments while we play christmas music. some of the kids like to load the ornaments on their hair or santa hats so they don't have to keep reaching for them and wearing the tree skirt as a shawl or top. if you can't tell, i collect tree top angels and toby decided to use all of them to decorate with. kaiya wanted to help too, okay so she wanted to help by playing with everything. boy does she crawl fast! we had to put her in her bouncer and give her something to keep her occupied. lol toby put up all the outside lights by himself and made our house look like a gingerbread house. we like it and hope you do too.

broken glass

2008-12-19T14:53:00.000-08:00

UUUGGGGHHHHH!!!!!! I went to drop off the food we agreed to make for our branch christmas party at church with one of the member who is going. we aren't since we are still getting over being sick and really don't want to spread it.
I get home to find that i have broken glass in a hard to find size picture frame. it's a new frame and i hadn't been able to put it up on the wall yet. one of the kids put it on a side table infront of a window, so when they were playing with the blinds and the blinds quickly closed, they missed the window sill and hit the glass. then talia had to make it worse by pounding on it. yes, talia is okay and so are the kids. i have just removed myself from the area. i am so frustrated. the frame is 11x17 and is an odd size so it is hard to find without it costing an arm and a leg. i managed to get the last few at our Fred's. they were marked $6 since they are plastic frames, but look like wood. and there is not a chance of any of the Fred's around here getting more in since they rang up as $3 and were obviously a clearance item. anyway, i'll figure it out. maybe i have more clear plastic sheeting, that you can use to replace windows with, in the garage but i'll have to wait for toby to feel better to cut it the size i need if we do.

isn't being sick fun!.....NOT!!!!

2008-12-19T08:10:00.001-08:00

Wed. night all of my kids, except gabriel, were puking their guts up and having diarrhea. this started around 9-10pm and karina was brought home from a sleepover at 11pm. i ended up sitting on the couch with kaiya and going thru several towels and clothes. finally we both fell asleep, while i was still sitting up. when i woke up at 7am, my neck was stiff and my thighs were burning as i finally peeled myself off the couch. then joy of all joys, i started all the same lovely stuff at around 11am. today toby is down with it. I can handle one kid at a time getting sick, but when they all do it together it is stressfull and then to be sick on top of that. thankfully karina's bathroom is 2 steps from her door, wayne and nathaiel ended up sleeping on the floor in front of their bathroom and thank goodness i had large ice cream buckets to use as puke buckets so i only have to wash one blanket and whatever kaiya puked on, as soon as i feel good enough to make more detergent. needless to say we're not going home if we haven't kicked this sickness. however from talking to other friends, it only lasts about 36 to 48 hrs.

cheap mp3 downloads and one for mp4 downloads

2008-12-17T12:41:00.001-08:00

if you are like me and looking for cheap mp3 downloads, this is what i found. most of the ones that you pay for offer spyware and adware protection and pop-up protection. not only can you use these sites for downloads to pcs but to macs also. After spending a few hours on the web, this is a complete list of what I found. there maybe more out there, but my eyes are tired from staring at the monitor and i'm starting to get a headache. hopes this helps some of you.

www.mp3downloadsbox.com has unlimited lifetime access for a one time fee of $34.95, or a two yr. unlimited access for $1.37 a month at a one time fee of $32.88, and last a 1 yr. unlimited access for $2.49 a month at a one time fee of $29.88. this site is rated #1 by CNN, NBC, AND AOL. now after researching the next several sites, they all have the same wording, log-in, cost, etc. so i can only assume they are owned by the same master company as the 1st website and all are rated #1 by the same companies, so here they are:
www.mp3downloadzone.com, www.mp3downloadnet.com, http://netmusicaccess.com, http://e-mp3now.com, http://unlimiteddownloadcenter.com

http://www.boredatuni.com/cheap-legal-mp3s.php is a link to several russian sites. these are all legal sites and i have used one or 2 in the past without any viruses to my computer. These usually charge $0.09 to $0.15 per download. however some say that you have to put $20 to $30 into your account (with them) first, they give you 50 to 100 free mp3s then start charging from the amount you put in your account. i haven't had any ripoffs from when i did this, they usually go through a third party in London.
www.mp3 panda.com is similar in all aspects to the russian sites, only this is based out of Cyprus. http://account.mp3sparks.com, http://mp3xclusive.com are also like the russian sites as they require a deposit upfront.
www.rhapsody.com offers a 14 day free trial then it is $12.99 per month for unlimited access.

Beware of free music download sites like www.mymusicrewards.com. they are free but read the fine prints i.e: MyMusicRewards is a completely free service that gives you the opportunity to earn free and totally legal music downloads from your favorite artists. Simply complete offers from our advertisers and select your free songs. Offers include: entering a sweepstakes, requesting free product information, printing a coupon, trying new products and services and more. There's no waiting and no points to worry about-- every offer you complete gets you more free music downloads. so this means completing tons tons of offers that you don't want, but if it suites you then do it.
www.webmp3music.com/usa/default2.asp# is supposed to be free but if you read their terms and agreements, it says: You'll call a Premium Rate Service which is not a call to your ISP and will appear in your phone bill. The cost per minute is £1.50. The maximum cost of the call will never exceed £20. that's $2.33 per minute not to exceed $31.04 depending on the British pound to USD rate. this is because you are going to call Madrid, Spain.

www.mp4advanced.com has 1 yr. unlimited access $19.99, 2 yr. unlimited access for $29.99, and lifetime unlimited access for $37

swings

2008-12-17T10:26:00.000-08:00

we have 5 swings in a row. yet wayne and gabriel are fighting over 1. who cares what swing, they are all at the same height and they are all identical. wayne stole gabriel's army hat, gabriel chased him. gabriel got in the swing wayne used to be in and wayne was about to hit gabriel with a piece of chain to get him out of the swing, before i came out and stopped it. i told wayne to feed the dogs, but he wanted to barter with me. he'd feed the dogs if i made gabriel get out of the swing. What!? no way mom does not make deals on chores. go feed the dogs, ok but now make gabriel get out of my swing. again 5 swings choose a different one!
KIDS!!!!!

Tripping down memory lane and dragging you with me

2008-12-16T14:11:00.000-08:00

ok, so as the oldest i have always enjoyed the job of harassing and embarrassing my younger siblings. if you think that's ever going to change, think again. like now. i will entertain you with some photos of my siblings. first there is a common site from our hallway, jason (or jacob) on the phone (when jaNae and i finally let them talk to a girl...we..ahem.."screened" their calls) or talking to a guy friend and then 'Nae or I would lay on their feet. it was a game to see who gave in 1st. the guys because they couldn't hold their legs up any longer under our weight or us because the pressure got to much on our lungs, and there in the front is miles. yes, if a girl called and we ('nae or I) didn't like the girl just because or more because of what we heard what the girl had been doing over the weekend (drinking, drugs, sex, etc.) then when that girl called we hung up the phone when they asked for jacob or jason, we say we'd take a message and then not, we said they weren't home when they were 5-10 ft. away from us and totally oblivious, we'd say we'd go look for them and just leave the phone there or hang up. then if they still persevered or our brother did and ended up on a double date with the girl and me, then i'd make it miserable for her and prob. jason, but i had fun. we have jason with long hair and jason with french braided hair. (you see he was sleeping sideways in a chair or maybe we held him down, but either way i french braided his hair. then we waited until he was asleep...he sleeps deep... and jacob, jaNae, and I painted his toenails and fingernails a lovely fire engine red....yes he did sleep through it...we waited for him to wake-up, lost patience and woke him up and waited for him to notice, but he didn't. so we pointed it out and then the horrified screaming began, ah the belly laughs we got and still get from that.) then we have jason being suave and debonair, can't find any funny pics of 'nae so she is in jason's pic,jacob being urkel, royal being goofy or the "I'm a pirate captain" pose..yes he still does that pose and it's still funny, ian sleeping with the cat... they (any animal) just loves him, he can mess them up and they will still love all over him a minute later, my clone-kira, miles at 2 or 3yrs, and three pics of jotty. me with jotty when he was a few months old, then me and him the next yr., and finally jason and jotty. don't you know teenagers need a lot of sleep and what better way to babysit a younger sibling than to take a nap together. then we have instances where i had my siblings lay on the floor with their stomach's exposed and i used the plunger, yep the one from the bathroom, to create a suction on their stomach and lift them off the ground until the suction broke and they fell back on to the floor. Okay so as a 12 yr. old, i didn't think about the plunger being nasty and covered in germs. then we have where royal would say he was feeling sick and 'nae and i (around 7 and 8 yrs. old) would take hi cup and put anything and everything into it from the kitchen cupboards and fridge and tell him to drink it, since it was medicine and for the most part he would. but that's my version of it.

ah, family pictures

2008-12-16T14:05:00.001-08:00

look at the family pics i found going through my albums. just had to share. :P ah yes my gorgeous aunt only 5-7 yrs. older than me. ok so all my aunts are cute, but this is the only photo i have of any of them young. and next are my cousins aren't they just too precious. ok so the oldest is only a yr. younger than me.

this is just for fun

2008-12-16T14:01:00.000-08:00

so i got a friend's christmas picture in the mail and i couldn't resist doing a contrast picture. the couple dating12-13 yrs. ago and them this year with their little miracle. look jim used to have hair. lol

Birthdays, do we have to have them? (now with pics)

2008-12-14T19:20:00.000-08:00

so that family members can pull out old pictures and laugh, only this time i'll pull the pics out up til i started having kids and got lazy and fat. one pic is of my good friend melinda, who's birthday is the 16th. so Happy Birthday Melinda, now you're as old as me. lol

so today is my 34th birthday. earlier this week my husband, toby, asked if i wanted to go do something?, no, you don't want to go out to eat or to a movie?, no, do you want a party or a cake?, mmm..no i don't think so...maybe...we'll see
my mom called and a friend or two has e-mailed. I'll include some of the funniest ones from them.
so yesterday at lunch i decided that i wanted to out to lunch, take all the kids, and eat at Shangri-la. it was wonderful chinese food and i stuffed myself since i hadn't eaten chinese in awhile. JaNae called and sang: " Happy Happy Birthday, You know I am so cool. Happy Happy Birthday, from the family fool. Happy Happy Birthday, you're older not insane. Happy Happy Birthday, from your sister 'Nae." needless to say, i died laughing.
today as i got up to get the kids up to get ready for church, i found a card tacked to karina's door. it said "Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!
Dear Mom,
I know you don't like being reminded, but Happy 34th Birthday mom. You know, don't worry about your age cause I'l love you no matter how old you are. love, Karina" so then the other kids had to try to make cards while or instead of eating breakfast and gettting dressed. we finally convinced them that they could finish after church.
today was a good day. church went well or as well with 6 kids incl. fussy baby can be. I got to take a decent nap. then a small family party, i decided to buy a cake anyway when we were out yesterday. toby bought me another standing jewelry box, that I wanted and a cd from a fav. artist. Toby's card that he made read: Another year has past and yet another is set to begin. The memories we've made this year are beautiful but pale in comparison to those yet to be made in the coming years. I hope you's enjoyed this year and I can't wait to make more memories with you this coming year. I love you!" what an awesome man and husband he is.
aunt hannah sent an e-mail entitled hummmm...
Happy Birthday to you! (CHa cha chah)
Happy Birthday to you! (Cha Cha Chah)
Happy Birthday dear Anna! (Cha CHa Chah!)
Happy Birthday to yoooUUUUUU!

Love ya! Aunt Hannah and Family