Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt Theme: Food

This little guy is going to make a nice dinner come December. Probably not what was expected for this weeks photo theme but I think it works. LOL ;)


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Friday Feast #110 - 9/8/06

Appetizer
Name 3 things that you are wearing today.
Khaki maternity pants, Cream & Mauve flowered maternity shirt & a hair clip.

Soup
Who was the last person you hugged?
My 6 year old son Taylor.

Salad
What do you like to order from your favorite fast food place?
Cheeseburger with fries and a shake.

Main Course
What time of day do you usually feel most energized?
Mid afternoon, it usually takes me awhile to wake up.

Dessert
Using the letters in your first name, write a sentence. (Example: Sweet unusual spaniels are nice.)
Very interest classes keep inspiring.

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And Then There Were Eight?

When I went to bed last night there were 3 roosters in our chicken coop. I'm assuming that when I left for work this morning there were still 3 roosters in the coop. I can't actually confirm that as I didn't check this morning. The above pic is what I came home to this afternoon...8 roosters! Now how exactly did that happen??? My hubby helpfully told me that they arrived in boxes. Hmm, guess they heard we had a new coop with lots of space and they decided to stop by and try it out. LOL ;) They seem to be enjoying their new space...they have a lot more room here than they did in their old space. They love to run outside eating up whatever bugs they can catch. I think the variety of colors is pretty cool. I've heard a rumor that we will be getting an incubator for eggs tonight. Don't think the eggs are coming yet although there are now two sets of friends collecting eggs for us...one currently has 14 set aside, not sure how many we'll be getting from the other. I'm beginning to wonder exactly what I've let myself be talked into. LOL

Here's a pic of what Mother's Bliss looks like as of last night. I've gotten most of the dark green done...only smaller patches left to do right in the middle and the second ribbon and then I think the bottom part of her dress is done. Yay! She's going to get put aside for awhile now while I work on a snowman rr. Then I'll either switch to the Finishers Too piece I have or to Quaker Mystery Sampler and then I'll be back to Mother's Bliss after I rotate through those three pieces. I'm getting excited that I can actually see an end point to both MB and QMS.

Foster Roosters

We are now the proud parents of 3 foster roosters. LOL I was surpised that they were different colors. We have a brown one, a black one and a brown one with a black spot up near it's neck. We'll be watching them for a friend that currently has too many for their space and they'll be helping to break in our new coop until we get our own chickens. I won't even talk about what's going to happen to them come the end of year...you can read more about that on my DH's blog under his Day 2 post if you want. I was so surprise with how much Taylor loves the roosters! He walked right into the coop and picked one up. He then had to pick up the other two just to give them equal time. =) Bekah liked them too and followed them around trying to pet them when we let them out into the pen. Oh and for all you funny girls out there...I do know the difference between a rooster and a hen and I won't be searching for any eggies from these little guys. LOL I guess these guys are safe enough until they start crowing, then that's a whole other issue. Right now they just make little cheeping sounds...it's so cute.

Car noises...ever been driving down the road and hear a strange noise coming from your car but you can't identify what or where it is? The kind of noise that you just want to ignore because you know if you figure out what it is, that it's going to end up costing you alot of money to get fixed. This is what I was experiencing on my way home from work today. I started hearing it after I got on the beltway and opened my window...which for a fleeting second I just wanted to shut it again and forget that I'd heard anything. But I didn't do...I just kept driving trying to figure out where the come and go squealing sound was coming from. Sounded to me like a worn belt but I'd just recently had my one worn belt replaced so I couldn't figure out what was causing the squealing. I'm still hearing it after a 1/2 hr of driving...and I'm driving on a major beltway so there are lots of different cars around. I finally figure out that it's the van in front of me making this terrible noise. Who would have thought that I'd follow him from where I got on the beltway to where we both got off at the same exit which is why I'd been hearing the noise for so long. I only figured it out when I went to take a second exit and he didn't which resulted in me passing him. I'm just so thankful that it wasn't my car making the noise. The last thing I want to do is put this thing back in the shop again.

Anyone have $2.5 million dollars they can loan me? I spent the entire day trying to figure out why the report I was working on was off this amount. Still hadn't figured it out by the time I went for the day. Hopefully things will look different in the morning and I'll be able to figure it out first thing.

Ahhh, The Sweet Sound of Music

Connor and Kenzie started back with their chorale practices today. They are members of the Chesapeake Youth Chorale. If you happen to look at the link, Connor is in the front row on the right hand side. He's the one that's out of line. :) This was taken during the concert with The Soldiers' Chorus of the U. S. Army Field Band and was Connor's very first concert after joining and he'd only been a member a month or so as he joined in the middle of their year. It's hard to believe that he's starting his 4th year with the chorale. It's amazing how much he's grown and matured during his time with them. He's gone from a shy child who doesn't like to have attention focused on him to one that can get up in front of the other choristers and lead them in a song. Kenzie is starting her 2nd year and you know this chorale means alot to her when she ranks it higher than ballet class. I love the Youth Chorale Festival that is done every year. Unfortunately I missed the one they did earlier this year due to morning sickness. 4 choirs from around the state get together and practice for a day and then in the evening they put on a concert as their own individual choirs and then as one big choir. It's really something to hear all those young voices singing together. What a presence they have.

I hear that we will be getting some roosters tomorrow. They'll be breaking in our new chicken coop for us. Of course, I've heard that for the last two days so I'll believe it when I see it. And I'm not quite sure how it's working that we are having roosters hanging out with us when I recall saying no roosters were allowed. DH claims that since they aren't crowing yet that it will be just the same as having hens. Hmmm...not sure I buy that one. LOL

Nothing much else happening today. Had some idiot of a guy try to hit me when I dropped the kids off for their soccer game. Nothing like zipping down a parking lot when people are trying to park their cars and kids are trying to get to the fields. And to make it worse, the guy gave me a look like I was the idiot when he zipped past me. Some people!

Did some stitching tonight on Mother's Bliss. Trying to finish up all the dark green before I move on to the next project. Hopefully I'll get it done in the next day or two so I'll be ready to work on the mini rr over the weekend.

Blah

That about describes my mood today. Such a dreary blecky day. Rained all day. Was so dark when I got up this morning...was hard to get moving especially after not sleeping well...and the day didn't improve much. Looks like tomorrow is shaping up to be another rainy day although they are thinking we might see a little sun in the afternoon.

Today was the kids first official day of school. Things seemed to go well although we need to make some minor adjustments with Tylers courses. That's what's great about homeschooling...you adjust where you need to instead of being locked into something that doesn't work for an entire year. Choir starts again for Connor and Kenzie. Hopefully I'll remember to pick them up tomorrow. LOL

Got an answer to my question about how many contractions are too many. Finally called the drs office this afternoon and was told that they don't like anymore than 4 contractions in an hour. Hmm, guess the 6-8 I was having yesterday for hours on end was too many. The nurse I talked to, whom I've known for 12 yrs now and really like, made me promise that if they happen like that again to be sure to call whether it's during office hours or not. Let's hope they stay sporadic like they have been today until it's time to deliver this munchkin. I hate making extra trips to the dr.

Too tired to write any more...good thing it was a boring day. =)

CWO - In "Other" Words 9/5/06

"Don't Let schooling interfere with your education." ~Mark Twain~

When my husband and I first started having children, we always assumed that when our kids got old enough they would go to school just the way that we did...by attending public school, learning their lessons during the year and going on to the next grade level at the end of the school year. And that's exactly what our first two children did...up until our oldest got into the third grade. That's we started noticing a problem that started when the school decided to switch to a new math curriculum. Our son, along with other kids in his class, was having trouble with this new curriculum so the teacher also supplemented the work with additional worksheets in the "old" style of teaching math. Unfortunately, the school made her stop the additional help and told her she could only teach from the new math curriculum regardless of whether the kids could learn it or not. We worked with the teacher and the school for the next two years regarding the issues that our son was having with this new math curriculum but to no avail. At the same time, our second son went into first grade were he did amazing...until he was about 3/4 of the way through the school year and the teacher indicated that he was working at such an accelerated pace that she'd run out of things to give him and that there was nothing else for him to work on that year.

Both of these situations seem to be examples of where schooling has gotten in the way of education. In the one case, our oldest son kept getting passed along through the grades even though he did understand most of the math concepts that he had been taught since the third grade...he was going into fifth grade at this point and still working at a third grade math comprehension level. And our second son was being held back from his full potential of learning due to the stipulations of the schools grade level work requirements. Just because a school says this is what the kids have to work with and this is all they are required to learn during a year doesn't mean it's best for the child. We decided at this point that it was in our childrens best interest to start homeschooling them. That way we could let them learn at their own pace and if that was accelerated past their grade level...great. We'd let them learn however much they wanted to learn with no stipulations. It also gives us the freedom to take things slower when need be. It took a year of work with our oldest to get him back on grade level in math but more than that, it took that amount of time to build his confidence back up. He'd become so disillusioned during those two years that we tried working with the school system that he'd lost his will to learn and that's a terrible price for a child to have to pay for letting schooling getting in the way of their education.

Happy Labor Day

Spent a pretty quiet day at home. We picked up all the tree limbs that Ernesto had blown down so the grass could be cut. Did some laundry. Kenzie and Alex went over to play with friends. The others stayed home and went fishing, for a bike ride and a walk. They were able to meet up with an old friend moving back to town which made Kenzie very happy when she got home and of course she had to walk immediately down to see her and say hi. I think we could be in trouble with her living right down the street from us. LOL

I've been having a number of contractions today...so how many is too many to have in a day?...so after doing the laundry, I took it easy and worked on my stitching. I was able to finish up the second baby quilt square. Also finished a square for a special friend (the butterfly one) and I worked on Mother's Bliss. I was able to get the dark green section on the left done and part of the ribbon. I think I'll do a little bit more work on her...trying to get all the dark green done, before switching over to work on the mini rr I have to.



Tomorrow, it's back to work and it's the first day of school for the kids. I know they are looking forward to it. LOL Wish them and Andy luck that all goes smoothly the first day.

Some Wind and Rain

but Ernesto wasn't too bad. We did have a 43+ mph gust of wind over night but other than lots of leaves down and tons of rain, it wasn't too bad. It was completely calm this morning but stayed gray and drizzly most of the day. Didn't do much today...kiddos did some cleaning, got the school room ready for school next week. I know they are looking forward to that. ;) We roasted hotdogs and marshmallows over the fire in the drizzle. Afterall, what better thing to do on a gray, drizzly day.

The older kids went to a friends house and I sat down to work on a baby quilt square while the little ones went for a bike ride with DH. Here's a pic of the completed piece. I have one more square to do. Hopefully I can get that one done tomorrow and I can get them all in the mail on Tuesday. Other stitching pieces I have to work on this month are a Mini RR and a Finishers Too piece. I'd also like to get some time in on Mother's Bliss and Quaker Mystery Sampler...hopefully time will allow for that.

What's in a Name?

I was browsing around different blogs and ran across a link to Barb's blog, A Chelsea Morning, where she is interested in how other bloggers came up with their blog names. I'm always curious about this when I'm reading others blogs so I thought I'd post how I came up with my blog name although it's very uncreative. We currently have 6 children with the 7th due in October and if hubby has his way, there'll be more after this one. ;) Since we view all our children as blessings and there is an abundance of them, it seemed only natural to call my blog An Abundance of Blessings.

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt Theme: On The Road

This is a picture of my husband and our oldest son literally "on the road"...or in this case "on the bridge". LOL This picture was taken during the 2001 annual Chesapeake Bay Bridge walk. This is a 4.3 mile long bridge that they hold an annual walk across the first Sunday in May.


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Friday Feast #109 - 9/1/06

Appetizer
What are some lyrics you have misheard (such as, instead of "Gettin' Jiggy With It" you heard "Kick a chicken with it")?

I know there is one lyric in particular that I always mishear but it's not coming to me right now. I'll have to come and edit this when I remember it.

Soup
What is the worst movie you have ever seen?

The one that comes immediately to mind is the Austin Powers movie...I can't even think of the name of it, that's how much I didn't like it. LOL

Salad
Using the letters from your favorite number, write a sentence. Example: Tomorrow has really easy experiences.

Seek Each Verse Every Night

Main Course
What was the most interesting news story you have heard this week?

Pluto no longer being a planet (I believe this story was actually in the news the end of last week but I haven't heard one more interesting). I find it amazing that something that's been classified as a planet since the 1930's is suddenly not what we've always believed it was.

Dessert
Which word(s) would you choose to describe your wardrobe?

Plain and large is how I would describe my current wardrobe since I'm currently in maternity clothes. They are pretty plain and boring. ;)

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Just need some chickens...

The chicken coop is now finished other than just a little bit of cleanup. They finished putting up the fencing for the run today. There a doorway that was cut in the front wall of the shed so that the chickens will be able to go in and out of the she. The door is currently closed but you can just make it out near the ground under the window. You can see the nest boxes inside the coop...just need to clean them off from all the wood shavings. The wire shelving you see on the floor is to help keep the chickens up off the floor a little. There's a perch for them along that far wall. But where are the chickens?? The people we are getting the eggs from will start gathering them for us...they've been on vacation and we'll get the incubator tomorrow so we'll be all ready for when the eggs arrive. I'll be sure to take a pic when we get our eggies. :)

Mom and dad stopped by tonight to show off the new car that mom got for her birthday. She got a Chrysler 300 in Cool Vanilla. Very pretty car and is so quiet when you are traveling in it. We are supposed to get together to celebrate mom's b'day and my bil's birthday next Sunday.

Andy's mom has been sick lately and is still in the hospital...she went in last Sunday where they found that she has an electrolite imbalance. They've been working on correcting that imbalance but as of yet have been unable to do so. And they are now monitoring her for seizures. Hopefully they will be able to get things under control soon.

I have the feeling that tomorrow will not be a fun day for traveling to and from work if the map is any indication of what the weather is going to be like. We are projected to get all the rain from Ernesto tomorrow into Saturday. I'm thinking tomorrow would be a good day just to stay home in bed all day. ;)

Quaker Mystery Sampler

I'm one step closer to being finished with this project. I finished Part 4 tonight. Yay! I had a mini frog get me but I got rid of him before he did too much damage. ;) The other 2 parts don't look like they should take too long to do. I'm going to put this one aside for now, though. I might go back to Mother's Bliss or I might go ahead and work on the mini rr piece or the finishers too piece that I have. I'll have to see which one calls the loudest when I sit down to stitch tomorrow.

SBQ - Let's Share

This week's SBQ was suggested by Carolyn and is:

How do you share your finished pieces with others? Do you frame them, scan and/or photograph them, or do you have another method that you would like to share?

I always scan my finished pieces and post them in my Webshots album. It's my one central place where I can keep track of everything I've stitched over the years.

There are three main ways that I share my work:

1. I'm a member of a great cross stitch board, CrossStitchCrazy , where I will post my finished projects (along with my wip's) for my friends there to see. We are a great source of encouragement to each other.
   
2. I post update pics here in my blog.
3. I will take projects to my friends and familys house, as well as work, so that they may see in person what I've accomplished...sometimes pictures just don't do the pieces justice.
   

I'm notoriously bad about framing my work unless it's a gift but I do have a few framed pieces hanging here in my house. The rest are waiting patiently in a storage bin for me to get the $ to frame them.

When are you due?

or How much longer? have been the two questions I've been getting alot the past two weeks. They always look surprised when I tell them I'm due towards the end of October...like there's no way I can still have 8 weeks left, I must be due in the next week or so. Reminds me of when I was pregnant with the twins but I really did look big...well huge actually...then so I could understand their surprise then when I told them I still had a couple months left. But I'm no where near that big now although everyone sure is making me think I am. A coworker of mine has commented on how much bigger I look this week than I was previously. Maybe the babe has just changed position which is the reason I look so different now. Who knows...but I am starting to get a little worried that this one is going to be another big one.

The other comment I'll get after being asked one of the other ones is whether this is my first child. To say people are taken aback when I tell them it's my 7th would be putting things mildly. For the most part I get varying responses to that answer...from That's wonderful...how blessed you are! to Oh my, are you crazy?!? I don't take the crazy comments to heart. ;) I took a class last week with one of my coworkers and got asked this question to which my coworker started laughing before I could answer. Needless to say the expressions on everyone elses face in the class was quite entertaining when I explained why she was laughing. Guess they knew then why I was taking a Time Management class. LOL

Learning Style

Your Learning Style: Competent and Cooperative

You have a great head for facts and figures. You can remember and use any fact you've read. You Should Study: Dentistry Education Environmental Science Finance Nursing Nutrition Science Medicine Law

What Should You Study?

I think this pegged me pretty well since I've always loved math...even those dreaded word problems in algebra. ;) I was a math major in college and have been working with facts and figures ever since I started my job 17 yrs ago.

CWO - In "Other" Words 8/29

"I thought about the whole notion of "reproduction," and what it really means to replicate yourself. Is it merely about the passing on of eyes and chins and hair color? Or is it, rather, the replication of the heart? Do we leave a bigger mark by passing on our genes, or our thoughts?"
~ Shannon Woodward, author of
Inconceivable: Finding Peace
in the Midst of Infertility ~

My first thought upon reading this quote was that we leave a bigger mark by passing on our thoughts. After all, how many people do we come in contact with every day that we have the opportunity to talk to and be able to spread the good news of the Lord. And then how many people do those people come in daily contact with? They have the same possibility. And so do the people that those people come in contact with. Seems to me the possibilities are endless.

But then if you take a look at it from the other angle…while my first thought here was that I only have a finite possibility of passing on my genes…I mean how many kids can one person have?…that possibility is actually bigger than I first thought. After all, my kids will hopefully have kids…and their kids will have kids…and there kids will have kids and so on and so on. And every one of those kids will have my genes in them. And all the generations that came before me…I have their genes in me. And, at the same time that my genes are being passed on, hopefully my thoughts are being passed on as well as we all hope that our values are passed down through the generations. So the possibilities here seem pretty endless as well.

I know that doesn't answer the question but where I first thought it was clear cut, now I'm having a hard time deciding. I'll be interested in reading others take on this.

Contacts

Oh boy...my oldest got contacts today. He can't be old enough for them yet, can he? He actually wanted to get them last year but the optometrist wanted him to wait until he was at least 13. His main reason for wanting them is because he has to wear prescription goggles when he plays sports...figured that was better than risking his glasses getting broken...but they really bug him so he's hoping the contacts will work better. He's in the phase in period right now...4hrs today, 5hrs tomorrow, 6hr the next and all day after that. He'll go back next week for a recheck just to make sure everything is going okay. So far so good. He was able to get them out and put away tonight without a problem. We'll see how things go tomorrow.

I took a walk with Alex and Bekah down to the river tonight while everyone else was up at the soccer field for the twins practice. What a wonderful breeze there was. We sat on the bulkhead and threw sticks in to the river for awhile. I did some stitching when we got back and I've made it back to the point where the frog got me yesterday. Looks like everything is lined up this time so I'm good. Still hoping to post a finished Part 4 pic in the next day or so.

I just got read the sweetest story of Green Eggs and Ham by my beginning 1st grader. Taylor just loves to read and has gotten quite good a reading the Dr Seuss books. It's amazing to think that this time last year he couldn't read at all and now he's reading whole books. And all the credit has to go to my DH. He's done such a great job of teaching all the kids although I know it can be trying at times.

A Day of Stitching

I spent a lot of the day stitching on Quaker Mystery Sampler and I thought things were progressing along nicely. Ha! I should have known better. I was more than half done with Part 4's motifs when I realized I stitched one in totally the wrong spot. At least it was the last big motif I did so it only threw off 2 little ones I'd done afterwards but now I have to frog all three of motifs. Grrr! No way that I can leave them where they are and get the other motifs to work out. Oh well, guess frogging is just a part a stitching but I sure wish he didn't feel the need to visit. At this point, I've gotten the three motifs frogged and have started restitching the larger motif but I'm kind of cranky now so I might just put it away for the night. I'd post a picture of what progress I did make today but I'm even too cranky to do that. Hopefully in a few days I'll be able to post a pic of a completed Part 4 section.

Chicken Coop Progress

The official building of the chicken coop has begun. The pic shows what it looked like as of yesterday. This is inside our existing shed. To the left of the framing will be were the chickens will reside, to the right will be normal shed usage. The runs for the chickens have also been plotted out, you can just barely make out the string outline in the pic. There are currently two different runs plotted out but we will probably start with just one for the winter and add to it next spring.

I didn't get as much accomplished yesterday as I wanted to. Was hoping to get to Kenzie's and Alex/Connor's room but only made it as far as straightening out the 2 linen closets. You'd have to have seen the state they were in to understand why it took so long. ;) Then I did a number of loads of laundry and hung them on the line outside. There's something quite therapeutic about hanging clothes on a line...I think it's something we should have started doing a long time ago. I know that I could do it in the middle of winter though. I felt like a total country bumpkin at one point, though. Bekah was outside playing and didn't want to come in once I got the dry clothes in the basket and the wet ones hung up so I sat on a tree stump and folded clothes. What a sight that must have been. LOL Late in the afternoon, we went to some friends and hung out for the evening. They are always fun to get together with and the kids get along great with their son so they can entertain themselves which leaves the adults to sit around and chat. Always a nice change. I wasn't able to get any stitching done yesterday but I'm hoping to get some done today as our plans for the day have changed. We were supposed to go to my parents house to celebrate my bil's birthday but they weren't able to make it. So that means we have a free day. Yay! =)

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt Theme: Blue

This picture of the quilt does a good job of representing where I live...the blue Chesapeake Bay and Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs. :)
I also remembered that we have a pic of a real Blue Crab that my DH and kids caught recently while out fishing. The crab is pictured with our youngest daughter Rebekah. I don't think she quite knows what to make of it. LOL


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Mother's Bliss

I've finally done a little bit of stitching over the last couple of days. I've finished with all the light green on the Mother's Bliss dress. Now I'm going to switch over to the Quaker Mystery Sampler until the next mini rr piece makes it my way.

I've also finished up a couple of books over the last few days...A Good Yarn and Round Robin.

A Good Yarn by Debbie Macomber: Lydia Hoffman owns the shop on Blossom Street. In the year since it opened, A Good Yarn has thrived -- and so has Lydia. A lot of that is due to Brad Goetz. But when Brad's ex-wife reappears, Lydia is suddenly afraid to trust her newfound happiness. Three women join Lydia's newest class. Elisa Beaumont, retired and bitterly divorced, learns that her onetime husband is reentering her life. Bethanne Hamlin is facing the fallout from a much more recent divorce. And Courtney Pulanski is a depressed and overweight teenager, whose grandmother's idea of helping her is to drag her to seniors' swim sessions -- and to the knitting class at A Good Yarn.

Round Robin by Jennifer Chiaverini: Round Robin reunites readers with the Elm Creek Quilters in this poignant and heartwarming follow-up to The Quilter's Apprentice, Jennifer Chiaverini's acclaimed debut novel. The Elm Creek Quilters have begun a round robin ... a quilt created by sewing concentric patchwork to a central block as it is passed around a circle of friends. Led by Sarah McClure, who came to Waterford, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Matt, a few years ago, the project is to be their gift to their beloved fellow quilter Sylvia Compson. But like the most delicate cross-stitch, their lives are held together by the most tenuous threads of happiness ... and they can unravel. As each woman confronts a personal crisis, a painful truth, or a life-changing choice, the quilt serves as a symbol of the complex and enduring bonds between mothers and daughters, sisters and friends. In weaving together the harmonious, disparate pieces of their crazy-quilt lives, the Elm Creek Quilters come to realize that friendship is one of the most precious gifts we can give each other, and that love can strengthen understanding, lead to new beginnings, and illuminate our lives.

2006 Already??

I know some of you are thinking...what's she talking about?...it's August 2006. What's the Already about? I assure you...there is a legitimate reason for my question...asked tongue in cheek, course. I've finally, finally made it into the current year at work. Yay!! I've been working on four December 2005 reports for my boss since the middle of March. He finally released two of them about a month ago. We've been going back and forth on the other two ever since. But he finally agreed to release them this afternoon. Woohoo! That means I can now start working on the June 2006 reports...which I'm right on time to be starting. Hope these go quicker than the December ones did as I need to get them finished before I have the baby and last I checked, that's only about 2 months away. Yikes! That's not much time.

And speaking of the baby, I'm starting to get really uncomfortable. She feels incredibly heavy lately so it's making it hard to walk. And she must have changed her position because now it's just uncomfortable in general. She must be all spread out in there because it doesn't matter what position I'm in, it still feels like something is poking me. She's also getting stronger so every now and then it really hurts when she stretches out and moves around. And she gets tons of hiccups too. Wonder what she's drinking in there? ;-)

SBQ - WIP Travel Keepers

This weeks SBQ question is:

What do you keep your WIPs and other stitching supplies in when traveling?

I have multiple tote bags in varying sizes that I put my WIP's in when traveling. I have the WIP's usually in a zippered project bag or a zip lock bag as the pic shows (along with some type of book to read). My stitching supplies can usually be found in smaller project bags or right in the same project bag as the WIP...it just depends on how big the project is. I have one tote bag in the car all the time (that's the Noah's Ark bag in pic) so that I'm always assured of having something to work on if I get hung up somewhere unexpectedly. The other totes I'll grab depending on whether it's a long trip or a short trip. I also have a zippered mesh bag that I use quite frequently if I know I won't be walking around much.

Timber!

Sometimes I really wonder what goes on at home while I'm at work. I got home a little late yesterday so I basically passed Andy in the driveway as he was heading for the field for soccer practice with the kids. After determining that I only had two kiddos at home with me, can never be quite sure on any given day how many go and how many stay, I set about continuing the dinner preparations that Andy had started. About halfway through this, I happened to glance out the back window and saw a tree laying across our back yard with branches strewn all around. Now we had been talking about cutting this tree down as it was half dead but I wasn't expecting it to have to been done already. When you are expecting to see one thing and see something else it can give a person quite a start. It looks great out there now without the tree...and to top things off, they've gotten it all cleaned up. The tree trunk has been cut up into pieces which our neighbor took most of to use in his fireplace. All the small limbs and leaves have been clean up and the stump has been cut down to the ground. Only thing left to do is to get a stump grinder to get the remaining part out of the ground but that can wait awhile. I had a picture of it but for some reason the camera decided to eat the pics so I guess we won't have anything to remember the occasion by. LOL I was able to get a pic of the left over tree trunks that Andy held back from our neighbor. Now I know why. =)

I wonder what's in store for me to find next..

CWO - In "Other" Words 8/22

"Salt, when dissolved in water, may disappear, but it does not cease to exist.
We can be sure of its presence by tasting the water. Likewise, the indwelling Christ, though unseen, will be made evident
to others from the love which
He imparts to us."
~Sadhu Sundar Singh~

The first thing I thought of upon reading this quote was the old saying "Just because you can't see something, doesn't mean it isn't there". There are those who question how you can believe in something...someone...that you can't see, feel, touch. I believe you can, just not in the normal sense of those words. Those questioning this are the ones that don't know Him, after all, if they did, they wouldn't be questioning this. They would know that He is always with you, that you can always feel His presence with you no matter where you are or what you might be doing. You can almost always tell someone who does know Him because of the way they act...or sometimes they don't have to be doing anything...they just seem to have a "presence" about them. They do something because they want to, because they have an urge to do it and sometimes they don't even understand why they are doing it but they know that He is the one leading them and they know that He will never lead them astray. These people aren't looking for any recognition for anything they've done. They don't need any outside recognition, they get all the reward they need from inside themselves by knowing that they are following His will and living their life the way He would want them to. They try to pass on His message to those questioning ones so that they may know what it's like to have Him living in them as well. They know that in the end, no amount of recognition, money, power, prestige, etc will get them anywhere. They know that He will always be here for them...because He is always with them. Sure they can't "see" him but they can feel him. And they know that even in their darkest times, in their times of greatest needs, that he walks with them.

Footprints in the Sand - The Poem

by Mary Stevenson, 1936

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed
he was walking along the beach with the LORD.

Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene he noticed two sets of
footprints in the sand: one belonging
to him, and the other to the LORD.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.

He noticed that many times along the path of
his life there was only one set of footprints.

He also noticed that it happened at the very
lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him and he
questioned the LORD about it:

"LORD, you said that once I decided to follow
you, you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life,
there is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when
I needed you most you would leave me."

The LORD replied:

"My son, my precious child,
I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you."

Almost there

Kenzie had a drs appt this morning to get her collarbone re-xrayed. Everything must be healing okay because she doesn't need to go back anymore. She was thrilled about that. :) She was also told that she could start participating in the drill part of soccer but couldn't actually play in any games (that goes for scrimmages as well) for another two weeks which works out well since that's when her first game is. Guess we'll be making a phone call here soon to her new softball coach to let him know she'll be okay to resume her sporting activities in a couple of weeks. Then the fun of that traveling starts although I'm not sure when they actually start practicing in this league...could be as late as the end of the year which would be good since the baby will be here in a couple of month. That's one question that I forgot to ask while we were there on Saturday. I'm not sure how we'll get her to practices yet but I have faith that things will work out somehow.

Andy and the kids then went over to spend the day with his parents after her appt. It's nice that they are close enough that they can do that and still be back in time for soccer practice in the afternoon. Andy's mom isn't thrilled with our name choice for the baby but he was the one that came up with it many years ago. She also isn't thrilled about us having chickens but he's sure that we can win her over once she takes the first egg. LOL ;-)

Night Terrors?

This is the only thing I can think of that is making Bekah act the way she is at night. The past two nights she woken up sobbing hysterically. Last night I found her sitting on her knees in her crib pointing out her window sobbing uncontrobably. Tonight, I found her in the same position but she wasn't making a peep and was just staring off into space...she had stopped crying by the time I got to her room. I' took her to the living room both times to rock and she won't go anywhere near her room again until she is completely asleep...which of course at that point she doesn't know she's going back. A couple of the other kids went through this as well although I don't remember it starting this early and I don't remember how long it lasted. Hope it doesn't last too long as it makes for some late nights...especially when she wakes up at 1am...tonight she started early.

That's the way the evening ended. The day began with us pulling into the church parking lot for 9am service and seeing the doors propped open. That's never a good sign...means the air conditioning is broken and boy does it get hot in there. We survived although Bekah was especially grumpy.

The chicken coop building process has begun. Or in this case, the remodeling process as the plan is to convert part of our existing shed into the chicken coop. Andy and the kids were able to get the shed cleaned out today and the one side is now empty. The plan is to put a wire wall inside the shed as a divider and to cut a hole in the side wall to allow the chickens access to an outside run. We've got some old wire shelving that we'll put on the floor to keep the chickens up out of their mess and some old broom handles to use as perches. We're trying to be as economical as we can with this. Not sure what we are going to use as nesting boxes but we'll probably have 2-4 of those depending on how many chickens we end up with.

Softball Anyone?

It appears that Kenzie has now joined a travel softball league. They had tryouts today for the team that we inquired about several months ago. The coach of the team called earlier this week and even though we explained that she couldn't try out for the team because of her broken collarbone, he assured us that it wasn't an issue and to just let him know when she got clearance from the dr that she could play again. Because Kenzie isn't one to sit back and wait, she wanted to go to the tryouts anyway so she could meet the coach and some of the players. Of course that meant that I missed out on getting together with my stitchy girlfriends in Virginia today...sorry ladies!...but how could I resist an 8 yo that looks at you with big blue eyes while saying that she really really wants to go to tryouts. I'm glad I did as Kenzie was very excited about the whole prospect of being on the team and thanked me multiple times for taking her after we got back home. The coach seem pretty excited about her showing up at tryouts. Because this is the developmental age group, they don't cut kids from the team so if Kenzie really wants to play, she's got a spot on the team. And they especially liked that she plays catcher. Of course by joining this team, it means that she won't be able to attend BSF as one of her practices and the BSF class fall on the same night. We'll have to see if there is some other class that's offered on another night as I'd hate for her to miss out on that learning activity.

Not much else going on. Alex took a referee class for soccer today. Connor wasn't feeling today so he missed his soccer practice. And the twins had off today as their team was used for a coachs skills demonstration last night..

I was able to get some stitching done today. Finished up the mini rr that I was working on and also finished what I wanted to do on the Finishers Too piece that I have. Now I'm either going to work on Mother's Bliss or Quaker Mystery Sampler although I do have a quilt square that I have to get done by the end of the month.

Recently Read Books

Since it's been hot and muggy lately (or maybe it's just the pregnancy affecting me more than normal), I haven't felt much like stitching so I've been doing a fair amount of reading. The three books I've finished over the last couple of weeks are A Gathering Place, The Shop on Blossom Street and The Reckoning.

A Gathering Place by Thomas Kinkaid & Katherine Spencer. With the Cape Light election over, Mayor Emily Warwick can finally focus more on her dear adopted daughter Sara and her deep regret about their long estrangement. For counsel, she turns to Reverend Ben, but the good-hearted minister seems distracted, troubled by turmoil within his own family. Sara's longing for a second chance is partially satisfied by her new relationship with newspaper publisher Dan Forbes. But does Dan really want to start a second family? A touching faith-based novel co-authored by the Painter of Light.

The Shop on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber. There's a little yarn shop on Blossom Street in Seattle. It's owned by Lydia Hoffman, and it represents her dream of a new life free from cancer. A life that offers a chance at love . . .
Lydia teaches knitting to beginners, and the first class is "How to Make a Baby Blanket." Three women join. Jacqueline Donovan wants to knit something for her grandchild as a gesture of reconciliation with her daughter-in-law. Carol Girard feels that the baby blanket is a message of hope as she makes a final attempt to conceive. And Alix Townsend is knitting her blanket for a court-ordered community service project. These four very different women, brought together by an age-old craft, make unexpected discoveries — about themselves and each other. Discoveries that lead to friendship and more . . .

The Reckoning by Beverly Lewis. Katherine Mayfield, the new Mistress of Mayfield Manor, always dreamed of a fancy "English" life. But as the seasons pass, she finds herself grieving the loss of her Amish family and her dearest friend, Mary Stoltzfus. Shunned from the Plain life she once knew, Katherine finds solace in volunteer work with hospice patients--a labor of love she hopes will bring honor to the memory of her birth mother. Unknown to Katherine, her long-lost love, Daniel Fisher, is desperate to locate his "Sweetheart girl," only to be frustrated at nearly evey turn. Meanwhile, she delights in the modern world--once forbidden--cherishing the attention of Justin Wirth, her handsome suitor. Her childhood entwined with Daniel's, yet her present life far removed from Lancaster County, Katherine longs for the peace that reigned in her mother's heart. And once again, she is compelled to face the heritage of her past.

I went to the library today and checked out a number of books including some of the Elm Street Quilters books that has been talked about on the cross stitch board recently. I'd forgotten how much I used to enjoy going to the library to get books out to read. I guess that tends to be one of those things that falls by the wayside when you start having kids and are so involved with their activities. I'm glad I've rediscovered it but I do wish that our library had more choices of books to check out.

Book info from BarnesandNoble.com

Big Decisions

We've decided that we need to cut out some activities in our lives...we are running ourselves ragged with all the activities that the kids are ing. So for an 8 year old, the biggest decision in her life right now is whether she wants to continue to sing in the chorale, take a ballet class or play select travel soccer. And Kenzie, with all her 8 year old wisdom, knew exactly what she wanted to do and never waivered from it. She definitely wants to stay in chorale, that's number 1 one her priority list and she also wants to take ballet, although that's proving to be a challenge as it's the same night as chorale and starts the same time that chorale is over and there's 20 minutes driving time in between. Hmm not sure how to work that out but we'll see. So that leaves cutting out travel soccer. And with the decision to no longer participate in travel soccer came the responsibility of telling that to her coach tonight. She did an admiral job of it and her coach told her that she will always have a place on the team if she decides she wants to play again. How awesome is that? We might be replacing one travel sport for another, though, as we got a call from a travel softball coach that we had inquired with a couple of months ago. He called to tell us about tryouts this weekend which we had seen an ad in the paper for but we had already decided that Kenzie wouldn't be able to join this year because she's not healed from her broken collarbone. The coach said not to worry about that at all and that he'd call back in a couple of weeks to check on her and see about getting her on the team. He also said she was more than welcome to come to the tryouts this weekend to meet him and some of the other players so we might take a run down there. So while we are trying to simplify things, I'm not sure it's going to work out that way in her case. Although this will take the play of her spring baseball so maybe it all evens out.

On a different note, I talked to the drs office today about the results of my glucose test and found out that I passed. Yay! So maybe that means I'll only have a little 9 pounder this time. LOL I'm not sure what I've done but I've been in a lot of pain today. Been having a hard time walking as my left hip is hurting and I also got a pain around my left shoulder blade. Feels like something is getting pinched as my left arms keeps going numb or gets that falling asleep feeling so I have to keep moving it around. I'm hoping I just slept in a weird position as things feel really tight and I'm hoping things will work themselves out overnight. That is assuming that I can get to sleep. I haven't been sleeping well the past couple of nights. *sigh* On a good note from work...I finally finished the ugly reports that I've been making revisions to since April. Emailed the last of the changes today so I'm hoping that we might be ready to release them. Of course, it's now time to update them through the current year so I'm not going to get a break from them at all. :(

SBQ - Organizing Fabric

This weeks SBQ question is:

Do you have an organizational system for your fabric? If so, what is
it? If not, what do you store your fabric in?

How do people store their fabric, especially those small but
potentially usable pieces? Do they sort by count? How do they label it
or otherwise know what each piece is?

I have all my fabric in the bottom drawer of a cabinet that my DH finished for me (the rest of the cabinet plus another one is devoted to the rest of my stitching supplies). The fabric is arranged by size then by color name. Most reside in the original packaging that I bought the fabric in. I don't think you are supposed to leave them in the plastic bags but I'm not sure how I'd identify their size, count, color name otherwise. I have my aida and opalescents as separate sections but I don't make any distinction between the different types of evenweaves and linen...they all get mixed together according to their size and color.

Presents

Now I like presents as much as the next person but I draw the line at the "present" that my 1 1/2 yr old daughter brought me last night. She's forever handing me things so I didn't think twice about sticking out my hand to receive her latest gift. Only this time it was half a dead mouse. Ewww! It took me a second to realize what it was but you should have seen how quickly I dropped it once the realization hit me. I haven't a clue where she got it from and I'm kind of afraid of where the rest of it might be but Bekah was quite proud of her latest gift to me and didn't quite understand why I rushed us off to the bathroom to scrub our hands. Next time I think I'll be a little more leary before sticking out my hand to accept her presents. LOL

CWO - In Other Words 8/15

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." - Albert Einstein

Hopefully I'm doing this right as this is my first time participating...

I've always been told that nothing worth having comes easy and I truly believe that. If something is handed to you, you have little appreciation for it but if you had to struggle to get it, you understand what value it has and it is precious to you. Like the child that is handed the shiny sports car for his sixteenth birthday or the child that has scraped and saved his money from his part-time job to buy a used car. Which one do you think is the more appreciated vehicle?

There are many different paths that one can follow when faced with a difficult situation...whether it be an illness, job loss, difficulty in school, etc...and the path you decide to follow shapes your future. You can either wallow in self pity that this difficulty is happening to you or you can look at it as an opportunity to grow in a way you couldn't have imagined previously knowing that He will there by your side.

He never gives you more than you can handle...something else I truly believe...but He also doesn't make it easy for you. Most often there will be many trials that you will have to go through but if you are able to persevere through, you have the opportunity to be that much closer to Him than you were before and what a wonderful opportunity that is.

Forest Retention Area???

Trees for Our Future??? There's something really wrong with this picture if we are to believe what the sign says. DH took this while out bike riding on the trail with the kids last night. You can click on the picture to make the words more legible.

Chores

Why is that no how hard you try and how easy you try to make it...trying to get kids to do their chores is like pulling teeth? And how young is too young to start having your kids do chores? This is a constant sore point with my MIL, she thinks we make them do too much. We start the kids out with clearing their spot at the table...as soon as they are able to carry their dishes to the sink without spilling everything all over the floor the start that chore. As they get older we add in dishwasher duty, washing the table, sweeping the floor, washing the countertops and cleaning out the microwave. Everyone is expected to help clear the table after a meal. Outside the kitchen, their chores grow to include picking up their room, changing their sheets, bringing their dirty clothes down to be washed, putting their clean clothes away, cleaning the cat box, cleaning out the big van, vacuuming, dusting, sweeping and cleaning their bathrooms. They all know what is expected of them because we have a master chore chart posted on the wall with all their names, the days of the week and what chore gets done on which day. It's not that hard to follow. So why can't they? It's like they suddenly don't know what day it is or they have forgotten how to read...which can't be a real excuse because we also have pictures drawn on the chart for the littlest ones. I can't figure out how to get it across to them that if they do a little bit everyday, it'll take less time to keep it up. They are famous for walking by a book on the floor...they would rather step over it than bend down, pick it up and put it away where it belows. They also love to shove things in their drawers...doesn't matter if the stuff actually belongs in there or not...as long as it's out of sight, that's good enough for them. Now I know in the back of my mind that they are just kids and that's just the way kids are and I don't expect things to be perfect but I would like to be better than they are now. With 8 of us living in this house, it takes all of us doing our part to keep it under control.

I guess all the cleaning I did yesterday has gotten me thinking of this. Then on top of that, they got invited to go boating today but we had to call back and say they couldn't go because they were fighting with each other when they were told they had to get some of their chores done before they left. How in the world to do we temper this or should we just resign ourselves to the fact that this is the way it's going to be...a constant tug of war to get them to do their chores until they get older and have kids of their own...at which point they will finally understand what we have been saying all this time.

Nesting Already?

All the clutter in the house has been driving me crazy lately and the master bathroom has needed a thorough cleaning for a couple of weeks now so once all the kids left with Andy for soccer practices...at the ungodly hour of 7:45 (I didn't sleep well at all last night so that seems like a totally unreasonable time to have been up this morning)...I ate a quick breakfast with Bekah and then got to work.

This is what I got accomplished:
- cleaned our bathroom (still need to mop)
- straightened and vacuumed tv room
- straightened up my desk and kids computer desk
- decluttered Bekah's room, changed sheets and vacuumed it
- decluttered the baby's room (now please explain to me how this room gets cluttered when there's no one in this room yet) and vacuumed it
- decluttered the twins room, changed sheets and vacuumed it
- cleaned all the gunk off the front door
- vacuumed the family room
- vacuumed our bedroom
- vacuumed hallway
- vacuumed the laundry room
- swept steps

I cleaned for so long that I completely lost track of time. Poor Bekah fell asleep on Tay's bed while waiting for me to feed her lunch. Boy, don't I feel like a bad mommy.

I still need to:
- declutter Kenzie's room
- declutter Alex & Connor's room
- straighten linen closet
- straighten hall closet

but those will be left for another day.
So is this what you would consider nesting? If so, it's going to be a long 10 wks. LOL

In the afternoon, I decided no more cleaning (I think I overdid it as my back and legs are really hurting) and pulled out the Robin's single theme rr that I have. I was able to finish my entire siggie in a few hours. Yay! I haven't felt much like stitching lately but it actually felt good to put needle to fabric today. Now I'm going to move on to the mini rr I have to work on and see what I can accomplish there.

Mom called this afternoon to say that she had to take Dad to the ER this morning. He fell yesterday at one of the schools and his RA flared up over night. They gave him a bunch of meds and then let him go home. Needless to say he was feeling pretty good at the time she called. Guess I would be too with all those meds floating around in my system. ;) Seriously though, it's times like these when you realize how quickly a situation can go from to good to bad. Even though this wasn't serious, who knows when something will happen that will be. This was a good wake up call to remember not to take your time with anyone for granted because you have no idea how long you will have with them.

Appt Updates and a Night at the Fair

I had an appt yesterday to have the glucose tolerance screening done. Will find out in a couple of days what the results are. I've gained another 2 1/2 lbs so that brings me to 25 lbs total at 29 wks. They also had me see the dr even though I was just there 2 wks ago, that way I wouldn't have to go back for another month. Baby is measuring well and sounds great...although the dr almost forgot to listen to her. He was so into the story he was telling me that he'd forgotten what he'd done and what he hadn't done. LOL Oh and just for kicks, every week I measure myself around the belly...not sure why although it could be a carryover from my PP EC days of doing toilet paper belly measuring. I'm now up to 40 3/4 inches around.

Alex had his drs appt today to get his collarbone rechecked. He got a clean bill of health and was released back into all activities. He was very excited about that. While the bone is still jagged looking on top because new bone hasn't formed there yet, underneath you can definitely see where the new bone is and that it is now hardened at this point. It was very interesting to see his xray from a month ago compared to this one. Dr said his broken collarbone is just as strong now as his nonbroken one and that he has an equal chance of breaking either one at this point. Let's pray that he doesn't do that again anytime soon.

I got a call from Kenzie while at work today asking if I wanted to go the 4-H county fair with them tonight. Andy and the kids were going to go in the early afternoon but those plans got messed up by a truck catching fire on the Kent Narrows bridge on the side that they had to travel on to get to the fair. Traffic was backed up across the Island for hours. So after I sat in traffic (unrelated to the truck fire) to get home from work, I hopped in the van and road up to the 4-H park with them. It was mobbed! There were cars and people everywhere. We had fun wandering around looking at all the animals...horses (there was a tiny pony that was just too cute), pigs, cows, sheep, goats, bunnies, hens, roosters and ducks. One of the roosters cage had caution tape draped around it. Upon peaking inside, you could see the rooster along with an egg. I'm guessing any rooster that lays an egg is in need of having caution tape wrapped around his cage. ROFL There was a whole cage full of eggs and the kids got a kick out all the different sizes and colors of them. Bekah was fascinated with the piglets that were trying to eat from their mama. I'm glad babies don't pull and squirm and wiggle as much as though little piglets were. Made me hurt for the poor mama. All in all, it was a nice evening...couldn't have asked for better weather.

Soccer = Chickens

Now you might be wondering how that is possible but if you knew my DH it wouldn't surprise you any. It all started with an innocent phone call that I made to the zoning office today to find out what kind of animals we can keep on our current property (we live in a subdivision on .80 acres) . Much to my surprise, they indicated that they don't restrict any type of animals from any property in the county....that if we lived in a subdivision, we would have to check with the hoa to check the by-laws on what was allowed/prohibited. We live in an old subdivision that had a hoa established when the community was first starting but that had long since been disbanned (mainly because they could never agree on anything) by the time we moved in here so as far as we know there arae no restrictions on what we put on our lot. Within reason, of course. I certainly wouldn't put the cow, or pig or even llamas or alpacas (sorry V!) that we'd been talking about but a few chickens at the back of our property now seems doable. Well, of course, I made the mistake(? LOL) of telling DH about my conversation with the zoning office. I didn't think anything else about it...came home for dinner...he left to go to soccer practice with some of the kids, I stayed home and played outside with Bekah. An hour and a half later (soccer practice is only an hr long) I get a phone call from him saying that we are getting chickens. Only my hubby could go to soccer practice and return with chickens. *shakes head* How did this happen you're wondering. Turns out, on the team he was coaching tonight there was a child of a family we know that owns a farm down the road from us and yes, you guessed it, they have chickens! So they offered to fertilize some eggs and in a few weeks will give them to us, along with an incubator, and we'll get to hatch some baby chicks. Of course now we have to figure out where to put these silly chickens once they get bigger so hubby been looking at how to make a coop for them. Whatever in the world have we gotten ourselves in to? And that, in a nutshell, is how soccer = chickens. LOL

Not Meant To Be

and I'm okay with that. We went and looked at the house today and the property was gorgeous! What a quiet and peaceful setting. The kids had such a wonderful time running around outside finding all kinds of toads and lizards to play with. They even did a little exploring in the woods behind the house. What a wonderful place to grow up. But the house is no where near big enough for us. It's listed as a 4 bedroom house but in reality the top floor (salt box style house so it's only got half a top level) was originally a master suite....bedroom, bathroom, sitting room. They were calling the sitting room a bedroom but there was no door, no closet and it had a hole in the wall that overlooked the stairway and the living below. And you could see where they'd taken the door off that had originally been at the top of the stairs leading into the suite. The one bedroom on the first floor was okay but the other one was no bigger than a shoe box. There was no way that two kids would fit in there. The kitchen was really nice but not nearly big enough to fit our entire family at the dinner table. Had a nice family and living room, though. The shape of the house doesn't lend itself to being added onto easily, so that's not a possibility even if we had the money to do it. Also, we can't a build a separate house for my parents so that pretty much eliminates the possibility of us going in on the property together. Just too many hurdles to try and overcome. Andy is a little upset with the misrepresentation they did on the listing because if it was listed as a 3 bedroom, we would have never given it a second glance even with all the land. So now we can put this behind us and see what comes our way next. We are slowly trying to cut back on all the activities that the kids do. We really need to take a step back and slow down instead of always running helter skelter. But how do you really do that? And how do you cut back on all the material "stuff" that the kids have gotten used to over time but they don't need? I haven't a clue but we really need to figure something out because we are slowing driving ourselves crazy here.

On a different note, wish me luck in the morning...I have to go for my glucose screening test. Let's hope I pass. And then Friday morning, I take Alex back to the dr to get his collarbone checked out for hopefully the last time. We're hoping that he will be released back into his regular activities then.

So Tired

I am just exhausted right now. It doesn't matter how much or how little sleep I get, I still feel the same way...tired! It's making it extremely difficult to function at work...all I could do this morning was sit and stare at my computer for a time. I knew I had things to do, I just couldn't get my brain to function enough to actually organize what those things were or how to go about getting them started. It was like a road that had been washed out in places. I could see where I needed to get to but couldn't figure out how to get there.

I finished reading Cape Light by Thomas Kinkaid and Katherine Spencer. The book is about a woman, Jessica, who takes a leave of absence to return to her childhood town of Cape Light to help her sister, the mayor, take care of their domineering mother while she is recuperating from a stroke. It shows Jessica's struggles of being stuck in a small town while she craves the bustle of the city and her wish to be pursueing the new romance she left there but could there be romance for her in this small town? It shows that the mayor has her own secret and will it be brought out when a young college age student arrives in town for the summer? Also takes you into a ministers life where things aren't always as perfect as we think their lives are. All it all, I enjoyed reading it although I was a little disappointed that one of the threads wasn't tied up as neatly as I would have liked at the end.

I stopped by the library on the way home from work today and picked up some more books and also ran into a friend, Janice. She was Alex's kindergarten teacher and just adores him to no end. She is currently pregnant with her 4th child, due later this month. She looked wonderful although she's very tired of being pregnant right now, especially since she's developed gestastional diabetes with this pregnancy. Let's hope I don't end up with it this time...I get to take the test Thursday morning.

And it's finally not so hot here. We actually have the a/c off and the windows open and there is the loveliest breeze blowing through the house. It feels delightful.

Good news/Bad news

Can't have one without the other, now can you? I got an email today about the house that we are interested in...the owner is more than willing to let us come look at the place even though it's not officially on the market at this time. Yay! That's the good news. Now the bad news...I reran the numbers for the mortgage amount that we would be looking at with this new place and where I thought we'd be close turns out that we are way off. I don't know what I was looking at before but there is no way we can get this place on our own unless 1) the owner is feeling really generous and decides to knock a good chunk off the asking price or 2) we seriously start talking to my parents about going in on this place together. We mentioned it to them already and Dad's game, just a numbers/timing thing on their part. We're supposed to go look at the place Wednesday night although now Andy thinks we should just not even bother since we won't be able to afford it. Sometimes I just want to smack him...he was the one that was all excited about this place to begin and said things would work out if they were meant to and now he doesn't even want to go see it. So, we'll probably go take a look at it but the reality of things are that we will most likely be staying right where we are. I'm not sure if I'm upset about that or not. We've been in our current house 12 yrs now and have done a number of additions/renovations to get the house to be where we want it. I really don't feel like starting all over again. We are within 8 yrs of having our current mortgage paid off. If we move, we'll be starting over again with a 30 yr mortgage. If, and that's a huge if, we are somehow able to get into this house, we won't have anything left over to do anything around the new house...so if we are going to be that strapped, is it really worth it? I'm not so sure it is. But it can't hurt to go look and then we'll probably put all this on the back shelf and look in front of us to what other changes we can make in our lives to make them less hectic/stressful.

Houses, houses everywhere and not a one we like

Well mostly anyway. We decided to take a drive today to look at the locations of some of the houses that'd we'd been discussing. These were located about 1/2 hr from my office...what a lovely commute that would be versus the 1 hr that I'm driving now. We didn't schedule any showings to actually see the houses, we just wanted to get a feel for where they were located. Turns out, we didn't like any of them...not even the one that would have been the perfect size for us. We also discovered that we much preferred the area around where we are living now so looks like I'm going to be keeping my long commute. *sigh* When we got back home, we decided to take a drive down to the 15 acre farm property that's 10 minutes from our current house. I've never been down by it but Andy and the kids have. The kids help out on the farm right next door with the chickens, bees, etc. While we couldn't see much, what I could see tells me that if we are meant to move it's going to be to this place. Only problem is that it was taken off the market on 8/1. It didn't sell so the agent I've been talking to is trying to find out if it was a permanent removal or just a temporary one. We'll see what happens.

17 yrs

Today is our anniversary. It's hard to believe that much time has gone by already but I guess if I look around at all the kiddos that are running around underfoot, I shouldn't be surprised. ;-) The day started out with all the kids having soccer practice. Andy was at the field from 8 - 1...long day for him. I went up about 10 to bring the twins and Connor home after their practices but Connor opted to stay til after Kenzie's and Alex's. I played with Bekah for a little while on the playground but it was hot so we didn't play too long. At least is wasn't as hot as it had been earlier in the week. I'm just more sensitive to it with being pregnant and it took me a long time to cool down once we got home...actually took until I got in the pool which was actually refreshing for a change and not like the bath water that it had been. Andy and I went out to dinner by ourselves tonight to celebrate or anniversary. We went to Kent Manor Inn and I have to say that I wasn't impressed. It took us over an hour to get our meal...now maybe I'm getting old and don't have as much patience as I used to but that seems like an extemely long time for them to bring you your food. She tried to explain it away by saying that the chef sends his apologies but the duck (Andy ordered) took longer than expected to cook. Now this duck was about the size of half a cornish hen...how long would it take to cook the thing? Plus you could tell by looking at it that it had been cooked too long. We were speculating that they had to kill the duck and pluck it before they cook and that was what was taking so long to get the meal. ;-) I ordered crab cakes and they were actually very tasty. For dessert, we ordered a brownie with ice cream but the waittress messed that up and only brought one order instead of two. Andy wanted one with chocolate ice cream and I wanted one with vanilla. I could have done with just the ice cream, though, as the brownie left alot to be desired. They did end up giving us a complimentary dessert and free drinks so they did acknowledge that the service was lacking but even so, it's not a place that I would go back to. It was nice to spend time with my hubby alone without the kids...that's a rare treat for us. And we got to watch an outdoor wedding that was taking place on the grounds so that was kind of cool. Kept us entertained while we spent all that time waiting for our food.

A Drive in the Country

I decided to take a long lunch at work today and drive out to see the properties that Andy and I have been looking at. All three are about a 30 - 40 minute drive from where I work. I was able to find the first place easy enough...didn't have any backyard for the kids to be able to play in and it appeared that most of the acreage was wooded which means we would have to clear it all out if we were going to be able to grow food and have a cow, chickens and pig. Pretty nice location, though. Went from there to the next place on the list. It appears to not be for sale anymore as the post was there but no sign to go with it. Couldn't really see the house from the road as there was a corn field planted in front of the house. The road to get to this house was a tiny little back country type road...not the kind I'd want the kids riding their bikes on or me driving on in the winter for that matter. Then it was on to the third house, another scary back country road and the house sits about 5 feet from it...didn't like that at all. This house came with 16 acres but most appeared to be wooded and up a hillside...not a good soccer playing area. ;) Plus it was built in the 1900's and is being sold "as is". That worries me a little. LOL The first place I saw was by far the best but none of the three knocked my socks off. There is a place about 10 minutes from where we currently live that would perfect if the house was a little bigger but we could always add on to it. Andy has the grand plan that we'll sell our house, my parents will sell their's and we'll go in together and buy this property...15 acres worth of farm land. Not sure my parents are game for that, though. LOL We decided to email tonight to see if we could get more info on the house...didn't want to call as we're not quite that serious yet, just exploring possibilities. The online description of the house didn't tell room sizes and such. In the time it took us to go fishing for a bit, I had a response back. Bad news is that the house has been taken off the market...maybe that's a sign that now isn't the right time for us to be doing this. She did say that she'd contacted the listing agent to see if it was a permanent removal or a temporary one and to see she could get more info on the rooms so we'll see what happens. I'm not going to stress about this, though. If it's meant to be, we'll know.

Bekah, Alex, Tay and I walked down to the river to fish for a bit while everyone else went over to the field for soccer stuff. The heat finally appears to have let up some as there was a wonderful breeze coming off the water. Alex had the honor of getting the most unique catch of the night which was a piece of wood. Upon closer inspection of the wood, we found that it contained a tiny crab...the one pictured at the right. I've never seen such a small crab before and it was extremely difficult trying to get a pic of it because of it's small size.

Unrealistic Expectations?

Not much happening homewise...still hot as anything so haven't been doing much in the evenings. Trying to swim but the pool is just not refreshing...even Bekah didn't like it tonight and wanted out after about 10 minutes. She much preferred jumping on the trampoline. The kids and Andy walked down to the river for a short while. The rays are migrating through as the river was filled with them...so they say. I opted to stay home.

Anyway, on to the unrealistic expectations. I'm a little frustrated with work today mainly because my boss made a comment to me that his boss had made to him about he couldn't understand why I didn't a report done yet that he had assigned to me on Tuesday. This report has 4 parts to it...I gave him a draft of one part yesterday to make sure that I was on the right track...which I was :)...and I've been working on the other parts since then. It's not easy to pull our data together the way he is looking for and I think he tends to forget that. Plus he wants everything to tie back to our corporate report and it takes time to track down discrencies. And I do have other work that I'm supposed to be doing besides the reports he's assigned me. Makes me want to pull my hair out sometimes. I don't think the comment would have bothered me as much if he hadn't made a similar comment about another report a week or so ago. It's making me start to think that he doesn't feel I'm doing my job. Now this other report has been done for months and he's the hold up because he keeps changing things with it. He's a very detailed person (which is unusual for a VP) and loves to get into the details but he tends to forget that not everyone wants to be down in the nitty gritty so his reports tend to be a bit over kill. I don't normally mind working on them but when you've been rehashing them for 4 months...and the next update is due now and you still haven't released the prior update...it gets a bit old.

Okay, enough complaining from me...I'm off to bed with hopes that tomorrow will be a brighter day. I think I might take a long lunch tomorrow and take a look at a couple of farmettes that we've been looking at online...I'm curious to see what they look like in person.

What was he thinking?

On the hottest day of the year so far, DH decided that he was going to fix the doors to our shed that have been falling apart for awhile now. They still need to be primed and painted but there was no way to get that done with the heat the way it was today. Heat index was over 110F...in fact, it's still at 104F at 9:15pm. Ugly! I think he did a really good job, the kids helped out as well, but you'd think this would have been better suited as a cool weather job. LOL

Kenzie had to turn in her paperwork for travel soccer this evening. She was bummed that she couldn't participate in the practice but even if she wasn't still recovering from her broken collarbone we wouldn't have let her anyway with as hot as it was. Those coaches are nuts having kids running around in this kind of heat. So, while DH took Kenzie to the field, the rest of us went for a nice refreshing dip in the pool. NOT! The pool was so incredibly hot that is was actually unbearable after awhile. Bekah had a good time playing in her boat, though.

Because I haven't felt much like stitching lately, I've finished a couple of books over the past week. Between Friends by Debbie Macomber was written in an interesting style...told the story through letters, diary entries, announcements, invitations, etc. I wasn't sure that I was going to like it when I first started reading it but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was about two girls that became fast friends and told about the trials and tribulations they went through as they grew up and became adults. I also finished The Redemption of Sarah Cain by Beverly Lewis. I just love this author. I love being able to step into Amish society and experience their world which is so vastly different from my own. This book was about 5 children who had recently been orphaned and left in the care of their Englisher aunt who didn't know a thing about Amish ways and didn't want anything to do them...at the beginning.

I did actually pull out Mother's Bliss and work on her a little tonight. I've gotten all the / of light green done in her dress. Now I just need to go back and \ them all.

Hot, hot, hot

I think that about sums up what it's going to be like here for the next couple of days. It was too hot for the kids to go fishing. And when they tried to go swimming in our pool, they ended up taking a bath instead. Now I like my pool water warm but not quite that warm. The president of our company was nice enough to let us have business casual dress attire for the rest of the week (we normally only get this on Fridays as he hates...and I mean hates...business casual) to try and combat the heat. I must remember to bring in my parka and my gloves tomorrow. Why? you ask. Because the company sent out an email saying they were adjusting the timing of when the air conditioning will be on in the building over the next few days. Normally it shuts off at 10pm and restarts at 4am, but to try and combat the heat for the next few days they will be running it 24hrs a day. Now that normally wouldn't be a bad thing except that it's already like an icebox on the floor I work on. I'm gonna be a little ice cube tomorrow. LOL

On a different note...how do you resist a little munchkin that looks up at you with big blue eyes as she's thrusting a book in your lap. You don't. =) But in this case her older sister offered to read to her, at which point she turned those adoring blues over to Kenzie and followed her down the hall to her room so she could get her story read. Ah, sisterly love...too bad it doesn't last for more than about 10 minutes. LOL

I was able to get a little bit of stitching done last night. Pulled out Mother's Bliss for the first time in months. Was fun working on her again. Had planned on working on her again tonight but I'm just not in the mood. I'm tired, cranky and just basically out of sorts. Sure hope this funk passes soon as it's getting kind of old at this point.