"In Other News..."

Here is just one of the many reasons that I am glad we no longer live near the armpit of America, Ga*ry, IN. My heart broke when my mom told me about this. After I got off the phone with her I looked up some more information about Josiah on the local papers website and found a horrifying article about a father carjacking a mother, the mother of his 7th child, shooting the mother, and taking the car with the baby in it. The car was later found down town with the baby still in it. He was shot twice, once in the face and once in the groin. He died in the emergency room. The mother lost her lung from the shooting, not to mention her son. I was in tears before I finished reading about it. How could a father do such a thing to his own child? And even worse, had that child lived, can you imagine the life he would have had, knowing what his father had done to him?

The worst part about it is that I get angry about the situation and automatically think that someone has to pay but the I realize that these people need Jesus. They don't know Him so they don't know right from wrong. In a way it makes me sad because I wish I would have done more while I was there. We lived so close to G*ary that I shopped at the same grocery stores as these people. I took my kids to the same mall (not that I went there very often) and the same movie theater. I even went to church there on occasion. Now I know that all I can do is pray. Things may be hard in other countries but I don't think people realize what it's like living in such poverty and hopelessness right here under our American flag everyday. We assume that the government takes care of them or the schools or at least some social worker has them on their list so they must be ok. We choose to see the poor staving kids and families in third world countries but what about the ones that we see at the park, playing with our children, starving not only for nourishment and love but for the only One that can really make them never hunger or thirst again?

"He ate my sock!"

The other morning I was just waking up and something was itchy on my leg. I thought it was dry skin or something but when I went to itch it with my foot I felt a bump there. I had no idea what it was so I left my foot there and pulled the covers off to see what it was. It was one of my little friends, the Chinese beetles, that came in through our air conditioner last fall. I was horrified! I flung the thing off with my hand only to mash it in my haste and ended up with that nasty smell they emit all over my fingers! Yuck!

They are few and far between because I employed my vacuum cleaner several times in the chopping up of these little critters into orange dust but I guess this one little guy decided to crawl into bed with me since all his buddies - whom he would have normally sought out for warmth - were gone in a suction of wind.

So, I was telling this story to Jozie right it happened and she felt my pain! She hates them as much as I do and said that she saw one on her wall that same morning...what a coincidence! And when she tried to squish it it got away into her bed and the darn thing ate her sock! LOL We had a pretty good laugh over that one! I don't know where she came up with it but I suppose she had to come up with something better than having one crawl up her leg in her bed! :)

"I'm not thinking straight today!"

...Says Luke when I told him he has a math test today. Like that's going to get him out of it! LOL

I am a Lazy Blogger...

Yes, for the first couple of weeks of my blog absence I had good excuses:

1. I was on vacation visiting Bob's family....we had a WONDERFUL time, like always!
2. I had company - my mom was here visiting for Christmas. It was nice to see them - the kids were sad to see them go!
3. I watched the first 3 seasons of Lost...well, most of it anyway. I've seen season 1 so I skimmed through it and then watch seasons 2 and 3 all the way through! It was a lot of time on the computer but not spent blogging!
4. I have been reading a lot! I've started reading Lonesome Dove - for some reason I have been reading a lot of historical fiction and have wondered into westerns a bit...it's been good but time consuming - I think it's about 800 pages, probably the longest book I have ever read - besides my Bible!
5. I have been making my own knitting needles in preparation for some yarn that I ordered at KnitPick*s because our local yarn shop is way too expensive to go into and the only other place that has knitting stuff within 50 miles is W*Mart...and their craft department is very sad. I have 5 projects that I am eagerly anticipating getting to work on!
   
6. Outside what I have just told you, my life has been totally void of anything worth blogging about...except my kids but I'm sure you guys get tired of hearing about them on a daily basis. Although I realize that they are the reason that some of you visit. :)

School is going pretty good, we are plugging along. Some days are better than others, but then again, isn't that life? :)

Luke has really taken off with his Royal Rangers badges. I think he has earned like 10 or so and we have 5 or 6 more that he is currently working on. At this rate he will be finished with the merits from Ranger Kids and onto Discovery Rangers before the school year is out! We will be working on the God and Me medal as soon as the materials come in the mail.

Luke has also been to visit the dr's this week for a full check up, even more than his normal yearly check up, for stomach pains. They start after supper and last until he goes to sleep. He also usually has some rotten egg burps along with it. Bob thinks that Luke is just making it up because he figured out that mom takes pity on him and lets him stay up late and watch TV. I don't know what to think. He has had them off and on for at least a year now and just over the last week they seem to have gotten worse. The dr couldn't find anything physically wrong with him and thinks it may be acid reflux...it runs in the men of Bob's family... but can't say for sure because it only happens at night. He prescribed Zy*cam twice a day and said to see how things are in a month. That's all well and good but in the mean time what does a mom do when she sees her son in pain and can't do anything about it? He keeps a bucket by his bed "just in case" but has yet to use it. If things don't change within the month I am going to insist that they retest his allergies (which we will have to travel to Sou*ix Falls to have done) and take some x-rays.

Jozie is my Miss Belle. Sweet as ever and growing up. She had a hard couple of days when her Amma left from her visit with us but she got over it and seems to miss her a little less. She does call her at least once a week though!

Jozie has been having an exceptionally hard time with her attention span for school lately. She hates the repetition in math and doesn't like to read ANYTHING! She does love cursive and she uses it all the time even when she isn't doing school work. She takes her time at it but she has pretty good penmanship for a new cursive writer.

Bob started a new job at school this semester. He has work study for his financial aid and has a job out at the aviation building where he goes to school. He is working on a helicopter with one of his classmates. He doesn't get paid much - a whopping $7.25/hr - but at least it is a job (well, a second job) that he is getting experience on and not just sitting in the library shelving books.

So, now that y'all are caught up on what's going on with us here in SD, I will do better on keeping it up to date.

Oh, #7, I just kept putting off updating things because it was such a daunting task! :)