2005: A Look Back Through My Eyes

I was tagged by Jamie for my reflections of 2005.

What did you do in 2005 that you've never done before?
I live in Indiana. I've never lived in this state before - this is a definate first!

Did you keep your New Year's resolutions and will you make more for next year?
What is a "New Year's Resolution"? No, I'm just kidding! I guess you could say that I kept my New Year's Resolution because I don't make any...I don't want to disappoint myself or anyone else.


Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes, my sister-in-law gave us a new nephew, named Dakota James. Aply named, since they live in South Dakota! Although I'm sure that Jesse James was also on her list! :) Also my friend, Amie, had a sweet little boy, Jonah.

Did anyone close to you die?
Bob's grandma passed away early this year, I think...she was a wonderful woman and would have been Luke's namesake, Mollie, had he been a girl.

What countries did you visit?
I may have been to Canada...but I'm not sure...things have gone so fast this year that I believe that that may have been 2004...wait....yep, that was fall 2004. Nope, no other countries except ours!

What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005?
I would have to say to be master of my tongue. I often say things that I later regret when I am angery, esp. with Bob and the kids. And the Bible says that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks...I guess that means, please change my heart, God! :)

What date from 2005 will remain etched in your memory and why?
I would have to say July 5. That was the day that we made our move to IN. We packed, had a garage sale, cleaned our old house, and moved all in a week. With very little help in MI (thanks Mom, Sandy, and Dick and Mary!), and then when we got to IN, we had to unload the biggest UHaul that they have plus our van that was fully loaded on a trailer and the back end of my mom's van, all by ourselves - Just Bob and I! In 1 day because the truck had to go back the next! It was exhausting to say the least!

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I hate to keep coming back to it...but I would have to say the move. Emotionally more than physically because I grew up where I left. That was and still is home. I left my friends, my home, and most of my family there. It was an extremely hard decision to make but we made it because we believed that it would be the better choice for our family in the long run...but we are yet to see the "long run"...but that's another story all together! :) Oh! That and teaching my children to read!

What was your biggest failure?
I think maybe being a good friend. I left a lot of them behind in MI that I seem to have pretty much lost contact with completely over the last 6 months. And I have none to show for the time that I have spent here except for a couple of new ones that are fellow HS moms.

Did you suffer illness or injury?
I think maybe a sinus infection last Feb. or so but that's about it!

What was the best thing you bought?
I guess I couldn't say...I didn't make any major purchases this year...except for an old beat up car that we bought from my brother, and I can't say that was the best thing! :)

Where did most of your money go?
Probably junk...things we really didn't need, but really wanted. Oh, and books! :)

What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Starting the school year with a classroom of 2!

What scripture is a theme of 2005?
"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." Isaiah 43:19

Compared to this time last year are you:
a. Happier or sadder? Probably happier. This is usually a hard time of the year for me because in the UP, when it snows daily it seems for weeks on end, you never see the sun, and never go outdoors unless it's to go into another door, it's pretty easy to get depressed. (Not that it's literally like that there, it just SEEMS like it sometimes.)
b. Thinner or fatter? Thinner, I lost some weight last spring and though I gained some of it back, I am not back to where I was at this time last year.
c. Richer or poorer? Probably Richer. My husband got a new job that pays better here than when we were in Michigan.

What do you wish you'd done more of?
Spending time as a family. With the move, and now with Bob's new job being so stressfull, along with him working 2 jobs, we haven't had a lot of family time.

What do you wish you'd done less of?
That's easy! Watching TV! And to think we were back down to basic cable and my husband decided that as a family gift for everyone this year we would get a satalite. We have been talking about it for a while but now, here it is, and we spend more time in front of than thing than ever! I hate it! (though it is nice to just sit and vegitage and relax!)

How did you spend Christmas?
At home with my family (Bob and the kids with my mom and John). We had a nice meal and then Bob went to work about 3 in the afternoon. The rest of the day I didn't do much. I had a nasty headache so I slept for about 3 hours!

Did you fall in love in 2005?
Of course, I fall in love with my kids more everyday (well, most days! :) and my husband (sigh!), but there was also a sweet little boy that shall remain nameless that captured my heart. We bonded quite closely but since we quit going to our old church I haven't seen him in months and probably won't see much more of him again.

What was your favorite TV show?
It's a close call but I would have to say CSI: Miami. Although CSI: NewYork and CSI: Crime Sceane Investigation, and NCIS are all a close second.

What was the best book you read?
I can't say what the best one was, I read constantly and often so I probably don't even remember all of the books that I read this year. I will be safe and say that the best book I read this year was the Bible.

What was your greatest musical discovery of 2005?
Without a doubt I would have to say shine.fm ! I listen to it all the time, it's our "local" Christian radio station. It's from Chicago and it plays a lot of really good music. Even the kids like it, they ask if I can turn the radio on to Shine.fm so they can listen to some music. They are even starting to recoginze some of the bands! It's pretty cool! :)

What did you want and get?
I really have no want for anything. Thank God, and my hard working husband! :) I'm not a frivolous person and don't have a lot of wants but if I do, I usually just get it, if it's within reason! :)

What did you want and not get?
That's another easy one! I wanted a house of my own! I want a bedroom and a kitchen and a living room and a bedroom for each of my kids! But I live in a basement...I'm not complaining. I have definately learned to be content but there are those days....

What was your favorite film this year?
I'm not a big movie buff. I watch them and usually fall asleep during them at home and the last move I saw with my husband in the theaters was probably Along Came Polly...that's old! We got a gift certificate to the local movie theater but haven't spent it yet so until then...I don't think I had a favorite film either.

What did you do on your birthday?
Birthday? What's a birthday? I quit having them about 4 years ago! But if you mean that day that my family insists on celebrating every year, the one where I was born, I believe I stayed home with my kids and did everyday things! Just the way I wanted it :)

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
To have found a home of my own and to not have had to leave our church that we moved here to be a part of.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005?
I really don't have any concept of style. I have a scarf that my grandma made me last year for my uncelebrated birthday that is one of those furry knits and I was going to wear it the other day but wasn't sure about it and with nobody else here to ask, I asked Jozie, "Belle, can I wear this or is it so last year?" and she said, with a frown on her face, "It's so last year, mom. Can I have it?" LOL What a girl! :) Anyway, I live in jeans and sweatshirts or tshirts - depending on the weather. And if I'm going somewhere I will put on a nice shirt. Other than that...I really don't care what "fashion" dictates!

What kept you sane?
I can't say that there was much sanity to any of my year. So, to quote Jamie, "Who said I was sane?"

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I'm sure if you asked my husband, I think he would say "Ty, the Gay Guy"! (Ty Pennington!)

What political issue stirred you the most?
I'm really not the political type, I rarely even watch the local news, let alone the national news! Anything interesting I get usually comes from Amie.

Who did you miss?
My dad.

Who was the best new person you met?
Not sure I have met any new people...pretty sad, considering I made a pretty big move a few months ago! I would say maybe our new Pastors; Pastor Sam and Judy, and Pastor Ron and Judy.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005.
Make sure you know what you are getting into before you jump in with both feet.

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Casting Crowns - "Praise You In This Storm"

I was sure by now
That You would have reached down
And wiped our tears away
Stepped in and saved the day
But once again, I say "Amen", and it's still raining

As the thunder rolls
I barely hear Your whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
And as You mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

I'll praise You in this storm
And I will life my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
Every tear I've cried
You hold in Your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I remember when
I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry
You raised me up again
My strength is almost gone
How can I carry on
If I can't find You

As the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

I lift my eyes unto the hills
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord
The Maker of Heaven and Earth


There are many songs that I could have chosen but this is the one that pretty much sums it up.

Here are my Christmas Pictures!

My "Good Christmas Picture"!

Luke with a new toy!

Jozie and "Baby Alex"!

I don't understand.....

I just posted and the stupid thing took me like 2 hours because it WOULD NOT change font size back to normal in the middle, so it looks gay, being huge halfway through for the rest of the post...sorry...I guess it's not like that many people look at my blog anyway so there shouldn't be too many of you to apologize too! :)

Christmas -

Don't get me wrong, I love the Christmas season and celebrating the birth of Jesus but I am glad it's finally over! Things just seem to start earlier every year and I get tired of all of the hullabullu. Next year things are going to be different. Simple. Like my blog template!

We had a very nice time this year, dispite not seeing family that we usually see at this time of the year. We spent the day at home with my mom and John. Bob had to work at 4 so we had everything done by 3 for him to leave so we had the afternoon to just relax and the kids played with their new toys.

Luke's favorite toy, I think, was his handcuffs. He has had a couple of pairs from the dollar store that break within days of bringing them home. So he was excited to have some metal ones that he could "cuff up" his sister with! It was either that or the video game plug-n-play thing I got for him. The spent pretty much all day in front of the tv with it the day after Christmas and thankfully got it pretty much out of their system. I think they have only played with it like 2 times since then!

Jozie's favorite, without a doubt, was the baby doll and set that we got her. It came with a pack-n-play, swing, car seat, and high chair, among other various little peices. She even had to go shopping for clothes for him at the Salvation Army and spent part of her money from her Grandparents there. She named him Alex and it's so cute to see her be such a good little "mommy"! :)

We spent Christmas Eve at church where I FINALLY got my "good Christmas picture"! :) Luke is sporting his new hairdo and tie...he just loves both and thougth he was pretty hot stuff that night! Jozie is wearing her favorite dress. EVERY Sunday for the past year she has asked if she can wear it to church! She was so thrilled to wear it she walked around like a little princess all night in it...holding it on the sides so she didn't step on it (not that it's that long, she just does that little prissy thing!)! I'm pretty sure I saw her walk on her tiptoes more than once too! She is such a girly girl!

Today is my dads birthday!!!

mas gift this year!HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

I think he's 58 today!

Tonight we have a NewYears Eve service at church but because my kids were up late last night (it was like 11 when they finally went to bed), and they were crabby all day today, I decided that the best thing for my sanity and their wellbeing was that we stay home, took a bath, and go to bed EARLY tonight...that way mom can enjoy NewYears Eve with the grown-ups (I think the youth pastor and his wife are coming over tonight to celebrate with us) and not have to deal with them! :) I am aiming for a 7:00 bedtime but I'm sure it will be closer to 7:30 or 8...which will hopefully have them asleep by 9! :)

On a final note, I must tell you about MY favorite Christmas gift...our family got some pretty scarey news back in Sept. from the new doctor that we took the kids too, the first one since we moved here too IN. I asked her what this white stuff was on Jozie's hair and she said that it was lice! After she gave it a quick disgusted glance! Didn't touch it to look closer or look for bugs, just declaired it like it was fact and at that point the visit was over! I was so horrified! How had my child gotten lice?! When we were in school, it was like the worst thing that could happen to you! I bathe her at least everyother day and more than that in the summer because of the heat and dirt! There was only one place that I could trace it back to but at this time that is irrelevant... I went DIRECTLY to Wal Mart and purchased enough of that lice shampoo, spray, and gel to treat an army then went home and vaccuumed, swept, and sprayed every cleanable peice of floor, furniture, and bed that was in the basement. I spent at least 2 hours in the bathroom treating and combing Jozie's hair and then Lukes. Kristin and I both treated our hair and we washed EVERYBODY'S bedding in Hot water and then dried it in the hottest dryer setting. I was pretty conifdent when we went to bed that there was no way they could survive this treatment. I spent the next couple of weeks itchy and crawly and nausiated at the fact STILL and watching Jozie for any motion of itching in her head. Things finally seemed to taper off and after daily checking and picking here and there, I was glad to see that I was gone. Then, about 2 weeks ago, I find the little white things there again! This time, instead of freaking out, I went online to research things and find a guarnteed treatment. I found it - at like $40 a shot! That seemed a little rediculous to me, seeing that nobody else even had it - that in itself was a mystery since Jozie and I share brushes and hair ties, she sleeps with Sami often or is watching TV in her or my mom's room on their beds. I actually brought home some home remedies (listerine and shaving cream for starters) and was ready to use them but got a peice of VERY helpful literture in the mail the other day that confirmed what I had hoped all along - she NEVER HAD lice!!! She has what is called Hair Casts. They are thin, elongated cylinder-shaped segments of dandruff which encircle the hair and slide off easily. I NEVER saw any bugs - which have to be there in order to get the nits (lice eggs) that the dr. said she had - and I spent literally HOURS searching her hair! Nits are little yellowish or graish-white oval-shaped eggs that are "glued" at an angle to that side of the hair shaft. There were pictures along with the descriptions which further confirmed that what she had wasn't lice! No wonder nobody else got it! I was overjoyed and this, I must say, was my best Christmas gift this year!

What Kind of Food Are You?

You Are Mexican Food

Spicy yet dependable. You pull punches, but people still love you.

What Kind of Food Are You?

Thanks Amie! I will write more later, but who knew that we were so much alike? :)

The ""Christmas Program"

Well, we had a couple of technical difficulties yesterday for the kids Christmas program at church. First, the director had a baby on Friday, so she wasn't there to direct the kids. Then, when all the kids were walking in, according to age, I missed Luke. Jozie was there, but Luke was nowhere to be seen. I told Bob I was going to go and look for him and ended up finding him in the Nursery. The lady who was working in the nursery said that he was a little nervous about singing in front of everybody so she told him that he could just be in there with her. I was not happy! I dressed him up in a new outfit to have to drag him kicking and screaming out of the nursery?!? I was NOT happy! Not only did he get his way, he thought he should stay in the nursery for the remainder of the service, and he's way too old to even be in there to begin with! Needless to say, I ended up missing Jozie singing with the rest of the kids too! That was only about 30 seconds long according to the accounts of when I got back to my seat with a crying Luke. So I figured I would at LEAST get to see the pictures when I get home. Right? WRONG! Bob only got one blurry picture because Jozie was in the back and it was so short that by the time he was ready to take another picture, it was already done! So, this is what I have to show for all my hard work yesterday morning in getting them ready for church (the first one is when we got home, I figured I could at least take a "nice" picture by the tree...Well nope, no such thing!) Jozie is the blob in the bottom picture with red hair and a red dress right in the middle.

The Gingerbread House!

It turned out to be about a 4 hour project - and that was only the decorating part, that didn't include the time that it took me to put it together yesterday! I would do it again BUT I would probably make my own gingerbread. If I did end up buying another kit like this one, the first thing I would do is throw out the icing that comes with the kit and make my own! That stuff was awful! It was way too stiff and it hardened almost as fast as you could get it out of the pastry bag! I just used a pound of powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons of meringue powder, and 6 tablespoons of water and let it mix in the mixer for about 10 minutes. It was much softer and SO much easier to work with! I even ended up throwing some out (after I dumped the whole bag of powdered sugar in the mixer, I realized that it was a 2 lb bag! So I had to double everything - it worked fine though!). I wasn't thrilled about that but it really wasn't good for much else, except maybe paste for the kids art projects! :) It tasted fine but it does end up drying really hard and I wouldn't want to use it for a cake or cookies. So, here's our finished project! After we were done, I just wanted to sit and look at it because we put so much hard work into it! :) Luke has a towel on his lap because he just got done taking a bath! So much for a nice picture!!! :)

Seven Sevens

Amie tagged me with this.

Seven things I hope to do before I die:

1. Adopt a child from Guatemala from House of Hope Orphanage.
2. See my great grandchildren.
3. Live on a farm that is my own.
4. Follow God's will for my life, not my own.
5. Own and run my husbands computer business (he will do all the computer work!:).
6. Simplify my life - get rid of the nonessensials!
7. Be debt free!

Seven things I cannot do:

1. Keep up with the laundry. Even if it's done everyday, the clothes my family has on are going to be dirty eventually.
2. Make pancakes. My kids hate my pancakes - even when I make them out of a box!
3. Give driving directions. I don't know where north, south, east, and west are most of the time!
4. Remember new peoples names.
5. Quit reading a book in the middle of it - no matter how boring!
6. Keep a collection of something - my husband keeps enough for both of us!
7. Buy something that isn't on sale.

Seven things that attract me to my spouse (significant other, best friend)

1. He talked to me like a friend.
2. He went out of his way to get to know me (he walked 3 miles with me everyday in the dark after working a 10 hour shift most days!)
3. His beautiful blue eyes!
4. He is a mans man, nothing about him is feminine!
   
5. He loves the Lord.
6. He works hard to provide for his family.
7. He gives and doesn't expect anything in return.

Seven things I say often

1. "Luke, stop hitting/kicking/scratching/chasing/being mean to your sister!"
2. "Stop talking and go to sleep!"
3. "Did you wash your hands?"
4. "I love you!"
5. "Goodnight, I love you, I'll see you in the morning!"
   
6. "Hey, hey, hey!" (I suppose this is my "no, no, no!")
   
7. "That behavior is unacceptable!"

Seven books or book series I love

1. Anne of Green Gables series - L.M. Montgomery
2. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series - Ann Brashares
3. Little House on the Prairie series - Laura Ingalls Wilder
4. Love Comes Softly/ Canadian West Series' - Janette Oak
5. The Heritage of Lancaster County series - Beverly Lewis
6. Mandie Myseries series - Lois Gladys Leppard
7. The Oath - Frank Peretti

Seven movies I would watch over and over again

1. Princess Bride
2. Anne of Green Gables
3. First Knight
4. Napoleon Dynamite
5. Ever After
6. Uptown Girls
7. Christy

So that's my "Seven Sevens" but, since I got tagged by one of the two people that I know who read my blog and the other tagged her, I guess I don't have many other choices so if you read this than you are "tagged"!

Well, I have now been "tagged" twice!

And I didn't even know it because I haven't checked anybodies blog for so long, probably not since my last post! That's pretty bad! Sorry :) So, here are some highlights of how things are going since my last "real" last post (I'm not going to go into great detail because I'm sure you don't want to read a book about my life! :) :

• School is going good - most of the time! :) We are pretty much finished with the ABC's with Ace and Christi. We are now doing review and polishing up on our writing skills until Christmas break then in Jan. We will be going back to finish up first grade. And of course we are always looking for new books to read...Luke gets so excited when he reads something new, and also has the opposing tempertantrum (sp?) when he can't figure out a new word! That gets a little tiring after awhile! Jozie loves to read (a girl after her mom's own heart!:) but doesn't really care for writing - hence the next week of review! :) We haven't been on any new field trips lately.
• The kids are both still enjoying AWANA. They are in different groups with different kids but they do most of the class stuff together. Luke is almost done with memorizing the books of the New Testament and Jozie has started learning the books of the Old Testament. I like this program even more now that I see how it builds on what the child has already memorized and helps them to learn not only how to memorize but what the verses mean as well. I look forward to many years to come with the AWANA program! :)
• We have been having "Christmas Class" every afternoon this week and will continue through next week. We have been doing somekind of Christmas craft and or activity everyday and talking about what Christmas really means (though they do know who Santa is, Amie, though the also know that he isn't real! I thought it was cute and great that Isaac didn't know who he was!). We have done snowflakes and cards, decorating the Christmas tree, Christmas Cookies, and today we started our Gingerbread house (ok, I will admit, this being our first gingerbread house, I did buy a kit. I didn't want the kids to put all the time and effort into baking it and then have the disappointment of it not working out so I broke down and bought a kit. BUT it will NOT look like the box. I also bought a bunch of different candy to decorate with so it won't look like the one on the box.) We will be finishing that tomorrow because Sami is helping us with it and she went to her first semi-formal dance tonight with some of her friends from school.
• We no longer attend KCC Outreach Ministries. For those of you who don't know, that is the ministry that we moved here to be a part of. That's all I am going to say about that for now but it's part of the reason that I have been so quite on here lately. It's been a pretty stressful time for my family the last couple of months. If you want to know more, you can email me and I will tell you what happened. So, that said, it brings us to my next point...
• We have recently started attending South Lake Worship Center. I have really enjoyed being back in a church body and just being fed. The kids love going to children's church and call it "the church of the three crosses" because there are three crosses in front of it. The first day I took Luke he was reluctant but went and when we went to pick him up he was so excited to have so many new friends that the said he forgot that I was coming to pick him up! I was glad to hear that :) It makes me happy to know that I am at a place where my children can also be fed.
• Which brings me to my next point. Jozie and Luke are going to be in their first Christmas Program this Sunday! We never really had anything at our church in MI for the kids since there weren't too many people willing to help out with it so this is their first opportunity to Join in on the fun. They are singing and signing Silent Night and they will also be singing Hark! The Harold Angels Sing.
  
• Well, now that we are here in Indiana, people have told us that we aren't supposed to have snow that stays until like late Jan. or early Feb. I think they lied. We got our first snow a couple of days before Thanksgiving. The kids thought they were in heaven because, to prepare them for the winter to come, we have told them that they wouldn't have much snow to play in this year. So, they were out to play in it the first thing after breakfast. It was wonderful heavy wet snow so I showed them how to make a snowman (in MI our snow was always too dry to make much of anything unless it was spring and it was melting). They made a small one and then Luke had the bright idea to see how big of a snowball he could make. He made a big one. I took pictures but don't know where Bob put them right now. Well, it was a good thing that they went out to play when they did because it was pretty much gone by noon. Except for the big snowball which sat in the yard for about 2 more days. So now, about this time last week we had a small snow storm. People were nuts and just making fools of themselves on the roads. BUT it hasn't gone away. People PROMISED me it would! I was looking forward to a relatively mild winter and here I am, in the coldest winter on record for this part of Indiana! I think the snow must have followed us here. Oh well, at least I won't have to worry about having a green Christmas! :) And it also makes me feel more like I'm at home, because as much as I hate to say it, I miss Michigan! :(
  
• I think they sold my house!!! >:| I am NOT happy about it!!! The house next door has been my house since I saw it but at the $125,000 they were asking for it, we couldn't afford it. We offered him $80,000 earlier in the summer and he really wanted us to have it but said he couldn't come down that far (understandably). But, as summer came to an end, and he had to take his ailing wife back to their home in FL, he said he was putting it up with a Realtor again but would sell to only us if we wanted to, for only $90,000!!! I was pretty thrilled but didn't want my excitement to show. It's still a little out of our price range but with some interest rate fanageling and a good loan, we could cope. We talked to my mom and John about it because they agreed to buy it through their company and we could rent to own from them and we could get a much better payment that way. Well, since we quit the "ministry" the guy they were working with on this realstate investment stuff pretty much dropped them and they didn't really know what to do. So, it has kinda been put on the back burner because they weren't sure if it was a good investment or not. Well, the last week I have noticed a car coming in and out of there and some trash on the curb. I thought it was the daughter just doing some cleaning out because they had some furniture and other family things in there still. But yesterday I noticed that there was a large moving type truck in there. I can't see the sign and I am scared. The sign is white and my eyes are bad and its some distance away so it's hard to see in the snow anyway, but tomorrow I am going to make a point to either drive by or walk by and see if it's true. If they DID in fact sell it, I really hope that they have some kids my kids ages. They don't have any friends near by like when we lived in MI. And I know that if they did sell the house than God must have something better for me, but sometimes that is kinda hard to believe! :)
• The job that I was supposed to be doing online/at home work didn't work out. They weren't very helpful and we had a virus so Bob had to format our computer, twice, over a period of a week and a half which was the time that I was supposed to start. I didn't finish by my deadline so they kicked me out. I haven't heard anything from them since. It cost me a lot of money too! Figures! I guess you live and learn. It seemed like a good thing but it didn't turn out to be that great.
• We aren't going anywhere for Christmas this year. With Bob just starting this new job this summer he hasn't gotten any vacation time yet and if he takes time off it is unpaid so we can't afford for him to do that. I am pretty disappointed because we usually go to see his family at least once during the year but we haven't been able to do that this year because of our move. But dad has moved to Flint and won't be going home for Christmas either this year so I guess we are just as well off to stay home with my mom.
  
• I had a cousin that passed away the first of Dec. She was on John's side of the family and only 12. She had lymphobalastic lymphoma (I have no idea if that's spelled right) cancer. It showed up suddenly in March and she was in and out of the hospital until she died. His family took it really hard, they aren't saved and had a really hard time understanding why God would do such a thing to a little girl.
• Jozie has joined a arts and crafts class with other homeschool girls her age. They just started last month before Thanksgiving and meet every other Tues. afternoon. She loves it and just completed her first sewing project! She made a little purse out of felt and added a couple of shapes for embellishments. I will have to take a picture of her with it before she gives it away. Next week the girls will be having a doll Christmas party where they will be exchanging gifts that they made for eachothers dolls at our last class. Jozie asks almost everyday if it's Tuesday (we haven't quite gotten down the days of the week!)!
  

I guess that's about it. Longer than it should have been but much shorter than it could have been (I'm pretty good at that!). I haven't been taking many picture lately. I guess the novelty of it has worn off for the moment and we haven't really been doing much lately either. I have also been keeping my hands busy with crafts and sewing and knitting for Christmas! Another reason that I have put my blogging aside! Stay tuned, I will follow up with my two tagged items soon - if I can do them! I did notice that the things on Amie's "Seven Sevens" would be almost identical to mine, can I just copy and paste hers?! :)

What obsolete skill are you?

Amie posted this interesting quiz on her blog. Here are my results. It was pretty cool, try it out for yourself and see what you are! :) Have fun!



You are 'Gregg shorthand'. Originally designed to
enable people to write faster, it is also very
useful for writing things which one does not
want other people to read, inasmuch as almost
no one knows shorthand any more.

You know how important it is to do things
efficiently and on time. You also value your
privacy, and (unlike some people) you do not
pretend to be friends with just everyone; that
would be ridiculous. When you do make friends,
you take them seriously, and faithfully keep
what they confide in you to yourself.
Unfortunately, the work which you do (which is
very important, of course) sometimes keeps you
away from social activities, and you are often
lonely. Your problem is that Gregg shorthand
has been obsolete for a long time.


What obsolete skill are you?
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More Goofy Stuff...

Jamie posted this link on her blog where you take a test to see what kind of parent you are - according to the Movies. Here were my results...the same as yours, Jamie!

Marisa, you could star as a parent in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!

Buckle your seatbelts. We can see your mind at work already, strapping your kids to your back, or piling them into the car as you take off on your next adventure. Your parenting style is like the Marcia Strassman and Rick Moranis characters in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. You teach by example and bring your kids along for the ride. We can see your expectant face, waiting excitedly for your kids' first words, steps, or any other achievement.

When your kids come to you with questions, you're likely to point them towards the dictionary or encyclopedia. It's important for them to learn on their own. And it wouldn't surprise us if you refused to raise your kids' allowances in the hopes that the entrepreneurial spirit might encourage them to set up a lemonade stand.

Like the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids parents, you can sometimes become absorbed in your own life. But once you feel the tug on your sleeve, you snap back into being the creative parent your kids can rely on.

Marisa Needs...

I found this fun thing to do on Jamie's blog. You google your name with the word needs. Like "Marisa needs" only you put in your name instead of mine. Then you blog the first 10 things that come up. Mine are kinda goofy so here goes...

1. Marisa needs someone like Conlon in her life. (whoever that is!)
2. Marisa needs perscription medicine every day. (sure, if you say so!;)
3. Marisa needs more touch....(ok:p But that doesn't mean I have to like it!)
4. Marisa needs to come down to San Diego more (that sounds good! I've never been there!)
5. all Marisa needs is the wig [and to be stretched 6" taller] (that sounds good! I've always wondered what it would be like to be tall!)
6. Marisa needs to tell him what really happened, but will he listen? (what really happened? Maybe I forgot to take my perscription medicine today...)
7. Marisa needs more entries...(Yup, that sounds like me, with my blog entries being almost a month apart at times!)
8. Marisa needs it badly. (Whatever it is, I'll take it!)
9. Marisa needs money to save him. (Give me the money! I'll save him!)
10. “Marisa needs help, help I can’t give her. Damn you! Fight!” (I can always use more help...help cleaning the house, help cooking, help doing the laundry...I'll take it!)

Late Summer Activities

Well, I have gotten behind on my posts - AGAIN! :) I seem to bet pretty good at that... Things have been quite busy around here lately though, I hardly have time to even check my email every day (which gets pretty annoying to find my inbox full of junk by the time I do get to it)! I posted a ton of pictures yesterday but didn't have much time to write about them so I will attempt to do that today.

Bob has been working two jobs for about the last month. He got a new job working at another juvenile detention center here. He isn't thrilled with it because there is a total lack of any structure or discipline - which is completely opposite of what he did in the past. They say they are in the process of implementing a new program but I have yet to hear that it is any type of success. He is also working for the charter bus company on his days off so he stays quite busy. We have really missed him a lot since he started this schedule and it's been especially hard on the kids but I guess we have to do what we have to do. Hopefully it won't last much longer.

We are STILL looking for a house. I am going to look at one today to rent, which we weren't thrilled about to begin with but now we are willing to do about anything to get out of the basement! Especially with winter coming on - it's going to get cold down here! The house I'm looking at today is only 2 bedrooms but it has a full basement that he said would be livable so I'm hopefully optimistic...If that makes sense... :) And the rent is in our price range so...I guess we will see how it goes and go from there.

A friend of ours from Michigan has come to live with us for a while. Her name is Kristin and she is 19. She also came to learn from Pastor Larry. She is excited to be here and we have enjoyed her also. It's nice to have "one of your own" friends for a change. Not that they aren't all my friends but she is from "home"! The kids love her too and she has been a big help with them. She has also been doing pretty good with her job hunting. She had 2 job interviews yesterday and she has another one today.

Ok, now to the pictures...

We have been on a couple of field trips already this year. The first one was a Touch A Truck day in the park. They got to climb through all different kinds of trucks from a cement truck to an ambulance, fire truck, and police car (they both sat in the police car but got out quicker than I could take a picture because they thought they would get in trouble and get taken away!), and also a loader, semi truck, a monster truck (they didn't get to go inside this one but they did get to go in the trailer they transport it in), and a few other trucks. Luke loved it and after we got to the end we had to go back through the other way and do it all over again! :) (Jozie and Luke liked the pictures of Josiah and Hannah at the Fire Station and now Luke wants to spray water from the hose!)

Our second field trip was to County Line Orchard on Tuesday this week. We picked several different kinds of apples - and ended up carrying out about 30 lbs of apples! WAY more than we really wanted but we had fun and took lots of pictures. Sometime next week or the week after that we are going to make and possibly can some applesauce. The kids are looking forward to that and ask daily if we are doing it "today"! :)

Which brings us to our next set of pictures...With all those apples, what are we going to do but make caramel apples! They were wonderful, of course, and I didn't take pictures of ME eating them...Sorry! :) We also made candy apples yesterday, which I haven't posted pictures for yet, but they were also very yummy! I had never had one before and now I wonder where they were all my life! :) We will probably make some apple pie before we are done with the apple experience! I really wish we had an apple press so we could make some cider, but...I think that will have to wait until another year! :)

The first few pictures are of when we made Banana Surprise Cookies last week. Not that making cookies is really eventful, but, we had all 3 kids working together (Luke, Jozie, and Sam, my younger sister) and these cookies were WONDERFUL!!! I was getting sick of banana bread with the amount of bananas that get too ripe to eat in this house so I found the recipe on the internet and they were great! And the best part about them is that I used crisco and they were DAIRY FREE! :) That's hard to come by for a little boy who is allergic to milk!

School Update:

Things are going pretty well. I found a decent attendance record and have been using it. We are just about finished with our third week of work (I think!) and it's going pretty smoothly. Luke has decided though, that school work is not for him. Most days he refuses to do it at all and we sit (with MANY breaks) for hours to do his few pages of PACE work. Jozie usually has all her pages done before Luke has the first one done - that sort of gives you an idea of how easy they are. And don't get me wrong, it's not that Luke CAN'T do the work, it's that he doesn't WANT to do the work. He has no problem doing it when he puts his mind to it, if he would just sit and get it done, he would probably be done BEFORE Jozie. He is now telling me that he wants to wait until next year to work on school work. (I used that as a threat to him a couple of times, hoping for the reverse psychology to work on him, but it has now backfired.) So, I am working with him on different incentives and time tests. He seems to like to see if he can get it done before the buzzer goes off...Or at least see how far he can get after 10 minutes or so. At least we may sit for only one hour instead of 3 or 4 hours of forcing him to get it done! As soon as he is done with these first 6 weeks of work, I told him that he can go as fast as he wants to go, since that's how PACES work, and by hopefully he will like it more when he is only required to do a few pages a day of work in several different subjects instead of several pages a day in one subject (since we are focusing on a reading program right now, it is all word building except for number recognition in math which is only 2 pages a day).

So, that's my Summary of our Late Summer Activities! Stay tuned for more to come! :)

Sibling help...Jozie couldn't seem to keep her fingers out of the better though! :) 

Kristen has come to live with us!!! Here we are making cookies! (Jozie, Luke, Kristin, and Sami! :) 

They must have been good! Luke is trying to talk with his mouth full! 

Jozie and Luke eating carmel apples - Luke chose the biggest one, of course! 

I don't think they even cared that Mom was there, they were so excited to spend the day with Daddy! :) 

"Pick that one right there!" Daddy was helping the process along! :) 

At times we couldn't find Luke for all the apples! :)

Here's Luke, with his hat on, ready to pick apples! :) 

Here's Jozie with her apples! :) 

Here they are with Amma in the Ambulance at the Touch a Truck day in the park. 

And, of course, Luke's favorite - Who would have guessed? :) It's Captain USA, they even got to meet the driver and get his autograph! How cool! :) 

Here was Jozie's favorite truck...her Papa Al drives a truck like this, she even got to blow the air horn! 

Hannah! Here's Jozie in the Fire Truck! :) She says Hello! :) 

Look, Josiah! Luke got on the Fire Truck! :)  

Happy Anniversary, Bob! :)

It's our anniversary today, only 5 years! :) I guess some would say we are still newly-weds (even though we have 5 kids) and at times I feel the same way! I just thought I would post today and say what a wonderful, loving husband I have and I look forward to many more years with him! :) *sigh* He is a great dad and the kids love spending time with him. We are truly blessed!

We aren't doing anything special, he has to work and I am babysitting my step-sister for the weekend so maybe we will get out next weekend.

Thank you, Bob, for being my husband! I love you! :*

Starting Monday...

Well, we finally got our school materials - I thought I would have them a week ago - so we will be starting school on Monday. I've looked it over and it should be good for both of them. It doesn't look to be so hard that Luke won't be able to handle it and Jozie will definitely benefit from the review, though I think she will have the first few weeks pretty easy. I am a bit nervous with the way Luke has been acting the last week or so - if I will be able to handle his behavior and teach him at the same time without going crazy...I guess I will find out soon enough. I am going to have to put some kind of incentive program into affect too, I think that will help him a lot. He is great when he gets praise and rewards for a job well done. I am thinking of a token type of incentive, exchangeable for dimes at the end of the week - up to $2 per week - and then some kind of special token for an extra special job well done or else doing something without being asked (those being exchanged for some other special reward; a movie rental, an hour later for bed time, extra TV time, etc). I am going to have to come up with a chart and goals for the day but that shouldn't be too hard.

I have started getting up early in the morning - around 6:30! (I usually sleep in for as long as I can!) I have prayer time with a couple of my friends in the morning before the one goes to work, that's why it's so early. After that, around 7, my mom and I have started walking. So I am hoping to get in a few minutes quite time before they get up around 8:00 or so. Though lately I have been lucky to have Jozie sleep that long and once she is up, Luke will usually quickly follow...So much for my time in the morning! I plan on having school first thing in the morning after breakfast (in the past I have learned that if I don't get it done right away, it gets put off until the next day and we end up getting behind rather quickly!). That leaves me the rest of the day, basically after lunch, to clean and do whatever other chores are necessary around the house. I'm also going to try and come up with a cleaning schedule so I don't end up a crazy lady one day every 2 weeks trying to scrub the whole house at once!

I guess I have got a lot of stuff cut out for myself starting Monday!

PS Jozie and Luke started AWANA this week and already Luke has gotten most of his Sparks Gate signed. He only has to memorize the AWANA pledge and the AWANA song and he will be able to start in the Skipper book. Jozie is almost done with the Skipper book - we started late last year so that's why she's a little behind but should catch up pretty quickly. She is just finishing with memorizing the books of the New Testament and a couple of other memory verses and she will be done. She asked this morning if they could go to Sparks again tonight. She loves making new friends and has said she already has lots of them there!

Sooner or Later...

Well, I suppose they would have found a reason to do it sooner or later, why not use a natural disaster as an excuse, and how convent that it happened right before a major holiday weekend! So much for travel, no class reunion or relatives from South Dakota or Nebraska! Hopefully it won't last too long and things will be back to normal, but who really knows what that is lately, seeing that the prices were predicted to rise this high before the end of the summer anyway, and that was BEFORE the hurricane. Hope all yall's vehicles have outstanding gas mileage, especially if you are traveling. Ours don't so I guess we will just have to suck it up and only go out when absolutely necessary.

Speaking of going out, I have to take my written drivers test here in Indiana again to get my Indiana drivers license, and we were hoping to do that today. I guess the reason that they make everybody take the test when they move here is because you never have to take the test again so I guess that's not such a bad reason, but what about all those people out there who need to take that test again? That doesn't make me feel too safe while I'm driving. It can't be such a great thing if you got your license 50 years ago!

So, be brave, be careful, and be conservative with your fuel! :)

Back to School!

Well, I am going to order our curriculum today. Both Jozie and Luke will be starting in first grade with the Learning to Read program through accelerated Christian Education (ACE). Since they are so close in age, they said it shouldn't be much of a problem starting them together, Luke just may need a little more time and energy before he is ready to start with the next phase of first grade. I guess we will just take it as it comes, he is only 5 so if he ends up in first grade again next year, which I doubt will happen - he catches on pretty quick, than he wouldn't be any further behind if we had started him in Kindergarten this year. I am just worried that it wouldn't challenge him enough and he would be board with it and he'd HATE school, and that is definitely not the way that we want to start things off with him!

This will be my first year with 2 students - officially anyway! I'm excited and scared all at the same time. I just hope that I can balance them both and teach them where they are at individually.

We have chosen ACE because when our ministry team, Kingdom Christian Center Outreach Ministries, starts up their private school again, this is the curriculum that they are going to use so Jozie and Luke will be right in line to start where they left off in homeschool. And I may be teaching so it will be a good way to familiarize myself with the curriculum for when that time comes! It is a little on the expensive side but I figure it's worth it if what we do works for our family better than something that is less expensive - though saving money is ALWAYS a good thing! :)

Indiana public schools started yesterday so we are going to have to get the ball rolling here soon. Though there are no state requirements for homeshcooling here as far as testing or reporting, you are required to teach the same amount of days that public schools do so that is a minimum of 180 days. I will have to keep an attendance record of some sort but I haven't exactly decided how I'm going to do that yet. If you have any suggestions, that would be great! I would rather use something on the computer than on paper but if I used paper it would be a hard copy and I wouldn't have to worry about loosing it...I guess it could go both ways, maybe something that I could print out and put in a 3 ring binder would do the trick. I'm going to have to start looking, I hope to start as soon as our curriculum comes.

Luke is 5 now! We had a day full of cow's milk to test and see if his allergy is gone...so far so good! :) 

We also got to see my Dad this weekend. Here's Papa playing with the kids. :) It was great to get to spend some time with him, even though we ended up going to the Knife and Gun show in Birch Run! :) It was fun and Luke got a toy gun from Papa for his birthday. 

Jozie's First Dance...Doesn't she look excited?!