Philippians 2:14

Well, I think I've finally gotten this here blog to look about the way I want it to. I've gotten sucked into an HTML vortex this week trying to figure it all out. Most of the figurin' I had to do all by little lonesome 'cause the "tutorials" available are less than helpful if you're a moron like I am. They are assuming that I already know a little about what they are describing. Which I don't. And Paint.Net. Well, let's not even go there. NOT helpful. Not. one. little. bit.

Also, I want to say that I always wanted to be the house that the neighborhood kids felt comfortable in. You know, "The Hangout". But, lately, ... I've been greeting them at the door with my Grouchy Face on and yelling, "Hey! You pesky kids get off my lawn!" Well, I didn't really but that's what I wanted to do. So today when I heard some more of them headed this way, before my bugs could even get their back packs off, I intercepted them and shooed them home. And this woman has thoroughly enjoyed the last hour of peace and quiet. I know the other mothers are thinking, "Send 'em to the crazy lady's house so I can get some work done around here. She won't mind; she's already got four of her own. What are four more?" .... There was an old lady who lived in a shoe.... But I'm the only one left on our street with preschoolers who need a daily nap or they implode at precisely 5:43 p.m.. So, share the love, folks. Let my boys come over there now and then; they're good kids, I promise.

Lastly, this week was Red Ribbon Week at the boys' school. These were their ribbons:
The 1st one is so obviously wrong. "Peace Out" means basically, "I'm leaving. Love ya. Hope you have a great day." Right? Well, sorta. Anyhow. It does not mean, "No way. I don't want any part of you. Leave me alone." So, why would we want our kids to say "Peace Out" to drugs??? Okay. Next. "One Life. One Goal." Our singular life goal should be, "I didn't take drugs." ? We can't reach for the stars and at least hope to finish school or get a job or be influential in someone else's life? Let's just keep it simple and say, "My life has been successful because I didn't participate in the consumption of illegal substances." I'm not really standing on a soapbox over these silly ribbons; I just thought they were odd to say the least. And I'm just curious as to who came up with these slogans.

Gosh, that sure was complaining post. I try not to do that too often. I'm really not Ebenezer Scrooge. I spend at least 10% of my day doing something else.

Tagged!

Joyce, at from this side of the pond, tagged me in her blog yesterday and I'm playing along because, well, I think she's one of the coolest chicks I haven't yet met. Please check out her blog; especially her pictures of New Joisey. I have never listed NJ high on my places I'd like to visit list but after looking at her pics the other day it's creeping up the list. Going to meet Joyce would be reason enough, though.

1. Where is your cell phone? Hopefully in my purse. Otherwise I will spend at least 20 minutes looking for it again tomorrow, which is becoming part of my routine.

2. Your hair? my favorite accessory
3. Your mother? FAB-ulous! Fun, dependable, punctual, honest, funny. We all broke out in a chant "Grandma! Grandma! Grandma!" when she got home the other night and she said, "Yep. Christmas must be right around the corner."
4. Your father? Quirky doesn't begin to tell that story.
5. Your favorite food? Do I have to narrow it down? Sour cream
6. Your dream last night? I don't remember last nights' dream but the night before involved Carol and Jeremy Smith and Josh Dorminy calling out the words for a spelling bee: "Snail. Snare. Carburetor."
7.Your favorite drink? Ice cold skim milk
8. Your dream/goal? Good. I only have to think of one. ...To not give my children too much to tell their therapists.
9. What room are you in? Bedroom
10. Your hobby? quilting
11. Your fear? I'm not sure I have any. I'll let you know if I think of one.
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Right here.
13. Where were you last night? Right here.
14. Something that you aren't? self-motivated
15. Muffins? huh?
16. Wish list item? Nikon D40
17. Where did you grow up? Detroit, Michigan until '87. Then Roswell, GA for a year. Then Acworth, Georgia until I married Brian. And, technically, I could list everywhere I've ever lived since I haven't really grown up yet.
18. Last thing you did? Typed that last sentence.
19. What are you wearing? Embellished tee, khakis, and underthings.
20. Your TV? Off.
21. Your pet? mean cat. But you'd be mean too with those kids around.
22. Friends? Oh, Lord, thank you. They're the coolest.
23. Your life? Undeserved
24. Your mood? Tired but happy
25. Missing someone? A little but they'll be back.
26. Vehicle? Soccer Mom Special
27. Something you're not wearing? socks
28. Your favorite store? Ikea.
29. Your favorite color? cranberry
30. When was the last time you laughed? 10 minutes ago
31. Last time you cried? This morning when I looked at Kimmy's wedding pictures on Facebook.
32. Your best friend? Callie
33. One place that I go to over and over? Bahia Honda State Park (in my mind)
34. One person who emails me regularly? My Uncle Rick - enough with the forwards already. ; )
35. Favorite place to eat? On the Border

There you go, Joyce. Lovin' ya here south of the Mason Dixon line. There are plenty of watery views around here. Come on down; the weather's fine!

Do I Really Need a Title?

I don't really know where to begin this post. First of all, I'm trying to change the way this here blog looks and I'm having trouble with Paint.net and getting a header to look right. Secondly, I feel like I have had a lot to say over the last few days but that I'm really the only one interested in what it is I have to say. Which is fine since this is more or less a scrapbook for me more than anything. That being said, here comes another boring post about what we did over the weekend and then at the end I'll tell you how I'm tying this all in to Tuesdays Unwrapped.

Saturday I got so much done around the house that I really should take pictures of my clean closet and emptied office as evidence. Both rooms had gotten to be such a disaster that I was expecting the Clean Sweep crew to show up on my front porch any day now. I couldn't handle it looking like that one more day. So while Brian was helping at the Health Clinic at church for LoveLoud I was able to get both rooms cleaned up. When Brian got home he asked if I had noticed all the cars at the neighbor's house and that there was a LoveLoud sign in her yard. The kids had noticed the cars and I just figured she was having a birthday party or something since she has 4 out of 6 kids at home and there is always lots to celebrate over there like a wedding or birthdays or celebrating the day her two youngest children were adopted, etc., etc.. So I was excited to be able to go down and see how I could help. She's a single mom with A WHOLE LOT on her plate and I was glad that she had accepted some help. I went over again today and helped her start painting the kids' play room and hopefully I will be able to finish it for her while she is in the hospital over the next couple days while her youngest child has another surgery to repair a cleft palate.

Then Sunday Brian and I took June Bug out for his Day Out with Mom and Dad. He also chose bowling but I think he chose it more because that is what Cuddle Bug chose and he didn't want to feel like he was not getting to do something that his little brother had already done. He really would have had a better time if he had chosen another activity though. He's very competitive and had a rough time when he wasn't bowling well. We were proud of how well he was handling his disappointment, though; he was doing his very best to try and shrug off a bad round and giving it his all. And today I realized that our time with him at home is already half over!!! He will graduate from high school when he's 17 years old and he is now almost 8 and a 1/2. So I think I will go cry myself to sleep thinking about how these 8 1/2 years have flown by and how the next 8 1/2 years will be gone before I know it.Is it wrong to hope that one day he'll get laid off from his job and will have to move back in with us?

And yesterday and today I climbed a mountain all the way to the summit. There I planted a flag firmly in the ground to declare my victory over it's ...

Icy White Cliffs

it's Blinding Lights that could cause you to fall off the menacing cliffs

and it's Deep Dark Chasms.It took all of Monday to establish a Base Camp but finally today I made it to the peak but not without my share of exhaustion and frostbite.

I will say, however, that I am truly thankful on this Tuesday because that mountaintop experience was well worth it because these are the faces that greeted me at the top and made the whole journey possible (and necessary).
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Emily challenged us to find more than one gift today.

I found at least four.

Wordy

Well, I was going to try to compose a post. But remember how I mentioned last week that I need absolute quiet in order to do so? My quiet might be very limited since one of the boys' friends just showed up with a book full of Pokemon cards and the cat is now mewing at my bedroom door for them to let her in. Which means that in approximately 8.37 seconds Lady Bug and Baby Bug will be up from their nap and this place will once again resume "circus status". Also, if I keep waiting a week to post anything on this here blog, all of my posts are going to start being as lengthy and wordy as BooMama's. ...

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*crack!* ...I hear a door opening and heavy footsteps on the stairs.
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So much for a nap time post.

Maybe if the babies watch Wall-E quietly and I send the 3 older boys to their room...
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Let's see if that works.
Here goes.
Sunday.
Nope. Lady Bug wants a cookie. Up again.
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Where was I?

Oh! Brian and I have decided that we want to spend a few hours with each of our kids individually. They need time with their mom and dad occasionally when they aren't competing for the spotlight with their greedy siblings. We started on Sunday with Cuddle Bug. We started with him 1) because he never gets to go 1st in anything; he's always 2nd or sometimes we start at the bottom and work our way up which means he goes 3rd. So he got to be 1st this time and 2) because it seemed natural to start with him since it was the day after his birthday.
We let him choose the activity - bowling was his choice. We had such a good time with him. He beat me in game 1 and I won game 2.

Afterwards, we took him to spend some of his birthday money and allowance. He and I both received gift cards to Barnes & Noble. He chose three Magic Tree House books and I chose Alicia Paulson's book Stitched In Time. I can hardly wait to try my hand at some of the projects she has in this book! But, ... first I have to finish some quilts.

Monday started our normal routine of school, housework, homework, bedtime.

This was part of June Bug's homework.Cutting eety beety teensy weensy little puzzle pieces from a piece of paper and then arranging them and gluing them onto another piece of paper to form a complete multiplication table. There was no way in H-E-double hockey sticks that he was going to be able to cut those out without murdalizing the numbers he needed. So guess who had to do the cutting? Guess who's wrist and elbow hurt for 2 hours afterward?

Aye yie yie! What a mess. If you are a teacher and you're reading this... Please, please don't assign this to your parents students for homework.

Wednesday was Farm Day at Lady Bug's preschool. How cute is she in this cowgirl get-up brushing this pretty pony's blond mane? Mmmm... I want to eat her up for dessert!

And, last but not least, who's as moody as the woman that birthed her?
-"What's wrong, baby?"
-"Go away! And leave me alone!!!" Oh. OK. Must be nap time.

Ketchup

It seems that over the last few weeks I've just been playin' "catch-up" on this here blog. A couple of days ago I was kind of lecturing myself about it too. But today I'm in a better place about the whole thing.

Part of the issue has been that I simply must have absolute quiet in order to think about which words I should use in order to form complete and coherent sentences. And I have had very little uninterrupted quiet lately. Not to mention that the last few weeks have been pretty busy around here and I feel like because I've spent a little less time on the computer or thinking about this here blog that I have not had to play "catch-up" on my everyday kind of things. Is this making a bit of sense? What I mean is: I would rather be behind schedule on the blog than to be behind schedule in life. There. I think that says what I mean.

So, in light of the whole being busy thing, here is a post to get all of you caught up about what's been going on here. If you're interested. Because, believe you me, it isn't terribly interesting. Again, this is another part of the problem because I have this "thing" about the blog being "interesting" and I just need to suck it up and get over it. When I took this job (stay-at-home mommy), I was informed from the get go that it wasn't going to be a glamorous position. You know,... the whole wiping up poo and vomit and laundry and such kind of takes out all the pizzazz. (insert jazz hands!)

Enough rambling...on to the cake!

Brian has demanded requested repeatedly that I make a new dessert for him every Friday. So I finally got around to doing that last week. He was thrilled!

Playdate at Play an Activity Center with one of Anna's little preschool friends. If you haven't been to this place, I highly recommend it. They treat you goooOOOd here!

Look! Their mama was actually there, too! ...
Or is that just their personal photographer?

Before we left that morning I got my shipment from Blue Ribbon Foods.
Wait! I think I hear angels singing... Look at all that glorious food!

And this was our view as we rounded the corner toward home.
I love this view! I think it took me at least 6 months before I started actually watching the road in front of me instead of turning to gaze at the gorgeousness every time we came home. It's a miracle I didn't run over any pets or children at play.

Friday Cuddle Bug's class went on a field trip to Zoo Atlanta. Lots o' fun! Especially since Kristi Walker and I had to keep running off to find one of several of the little monkeys in our group. There was always someone running off ahead or straggling behind.

And I had this little cutie patootie with me!

And, speaking of cutie patooties...

...Cuddle Bug's seventh birthday was today!

These were the cupcakes he requested.

And, by-the-way, Wednesday was my birthday.
So,... Happy Birthday to Me!

And if it hadn't started raining at 6:00 tonight I would have had to herd a bunch of elementary rugrats through an inflatable thing at the kids' school Fall Festival tonight.
Thank you, Lord, for the rain! "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights." - James 1:16

And so ends my post.

Bloggy Birthday - 3 Days Late

Picture by Alicia Paulson

October 6th was my blogging birthday. I missed my own birthday. I'm not surprised.

I started all this blogging stuff to have a way to keep my family up-to-date on the happenings in our home. I still blog for that reason but there are other reasons that make me keep on doing it or I might have called it quits a while ago. I also do it to make a connection to other women. Women are so cool! I'm glad to have been virtually introduced to women who make me laugh, who make me appreciate the blessings in my life, who teach me, who encourage me (Bee, I'm really missing your voice). I hope that every now and then you are encouraged here or learn something new or that you laugh even if you're laughing at me and not with me. : D

The Nester asked us to define our space (our home) a couple of days ago. To describe how you want people to feel when they visit you in your natural habitat. I have yet to complete that assignment for the house I live in but here, my internet home, I want to be Not Stuffy. I want to feel comfortable here and for you to feel the same way. Really, this is how I want my house to feel also. I want it to be a place you can drop in and put your groceries in the fridge while you hang out (sound familiar S? I really miss that, you know). The door is always open here.

So, Happy Belated Bloggy Birthday to me!

Wow!

Wow! Sting just jumped into the #1 spot on my Concerts I Want to Go to Most List.

Because...check!...#1 - U2 got marked off on Tuesday night!

It was fabulous! The Georgia Dome was packed. The Dome seats over 70,000 and I dont' have a clue how many had spaces on the floor. I can't find a count on either of the major networks' sites or on AJC's site but they have amazing pictures. Not quite as amazing as my friend DeDe's pics, though! Her husband is a member of Third Day and they were there promoting The One Campaign along with Brooke Shields and Michael W. Smith just to drop some names.

The band that opened for U2 was MUSE. I had not heard of them until Tuesday. I know, I know. You Twilight fans have heard of them but I haven't read those books or seen the movie and I'm a DAVE FM listener not 99X so cut me some slack! Anyhow,... they were fabulous, too! Brian turned to me at one point and said, "U2 better bring it to keep up with these guys!" Whoever runs the whole thing from this control center/space station/laboratory is brilliant. Watching that show was like witnessing a great master painting his greatest work of art. It was beautiful!

This was my early birthday present from Brian and it will be holding the #1 slot of favorite gifts for a long time. Thank you, sweetheart!

Whatever this fan paid for her ticket was WELL worth it! Some of her friends boosted her up and Bono pulled her onto the bridge with him.

There are not many bands out there that incorporate so much of what they believe in into their shows and they do it with class. They're not afraid of what you think of them. They're going to stand up for people who can't stand up for themselves and they are always bringing some cause into the limelight.

This is what the stage looked like for Bloody Sunday. I thought alot about you, B, during this song. You're over there telling people about hope and about The Only One that true Hope comes from.

And speaking of this hope... The stage was red during Bono's version of Amazing Grace. His banner over me. I am so glad I could sing along and that I knew what those words meant and how they have been applied in my life. I love a reminder of what I was before, what I would be without Him and what He did out of so much love to change me.

a sinner saved by grace.