Another From my E-mail

I checked this out on Sno*pes dot com and found that it is true - but not completely accurate and there is more information about it, if you care, you can check it out there.

I loved this prayer though and thought it was worth posting anyway.

Here it is:

It seems prayer still upsets some people. Please read.....
When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the
Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but
this is what they heard;

"Heavenly Father,
We come before you today
To ask your forgiveness and
To seek your direction and guidance.

We know Your Word says,
"Woe to those who call evil good"
But that is exactly what we have done.
We have lost our spiritual equilibrium
And reversed our values.

We have exploited the poor and
Called it the lottery.

We have rewarded laziness
And called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn
and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists
and called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline
Our children and called it
building self esteem.

We have abused power
And called it politics.

We have coveted our neighbor's
Possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air
With profanity and
Pornography and called it
Freedom of speech and expression.

We have ridiculed the time
Honored values of our
Forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh, God,
And know our hearts today;
Cleanse us from every sin
And set us free..
Amen!"

The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out
during the prayer in protest.

In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is
pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those
calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving
international requests for copies of this prayer from India , Africa and Korea.

Those Promised Pictures...

...Didn't really get taken. I did take some pictures of the kids playing outside and one video of Luke playing a game on the computer - you have to have your speakers on to hear the full effect of him on the game. He doesn't sit down very often or for long and the sounds you hear him making are pretty constant while he's playing. I only let them play for an hour a day IF their school work and behavior in school merits it.



He is so engrossed in what he is doing he doesn't even notice that I am taking video of him until almost the end and then he just goes back to it like he didn't even see me. That is unusual because rarely lets me take pictures of him!

This is another rare moment! He's even smiling!

Belle and her friends. The one in the middle is Ayian*na (pronounced Eonna), she is the one who was the recipient of Jozie's Gift at Christmastime. As you probably guessed, what Jozie gave her was quite big (except for the hat and gloves which we have yet to see on her). So this is typical Ayia*nna dress. It was probably about 25 Degrees F this day and though sunny, still pretty cold. The little one on the end is Jayden, our neighbor girl that Jozie plays with most of the time. (I censored her name just in case her parents g0*ogle it - it's not exactly a common name and I'm not sure how they would react to what I've posted about her.)

Papa's Coming!

The kids were quite excited today to find out that their beloved Papa is coming to visit tomorrow! My dad is back to work so he is making a trip out to OR this week and gets to stop and see us and spend the night on his way. We haven't seen him since before Christmas so it will be nice to have him here. I won't have to send him the picture of the kids I have for him and I will be able to give him his Christmas present! LOL I'm cheap, I didn't send it! I'm going to try and take some pictures while he is here since I haven't posted many pictures of the kids lately.

You may even see some differences in them....Luke lost another tooth - btw - and his two front ones are about half way in...the other 3 middle front teeth (the 4 on the sides of the 4 middle front top and bottom) are loose now so he will probably have the opposite gappy grin in a week or so! I'm going to have to go easy with my tooth fairy fund or there won't be enough by the time the last one is out!

Spring is in the Air...I Think

Things are starting to warm up here on the frozen prairie. We've had almost a week of above zero weather! I am amazed!

The reason that I am blogging about this is simply because I have nothing better to blog about. And now that I have said it, I'm SURE we will have another 2 months of frigid winter weather! Isn't that the way that it usually goes? But we will take it as it comes and be happy when Spring finally does start to thaw us out! :)

On a side note, there was quite a bit of sickness at church yesterday. Oh, joy! There were some families that went home early because of sick kids...and of course my kids happened to be in children's church with the siblings of these sick kids. I am not thrilled. I am praying that they don't get sick but almost expecting that they will. Why is it that people insist on taking sick kids to church? It's almost like they think if they miss one Sunday that the world will stop turning and they will go to "the hot place" (as Luke likes to call it).

What'cha Readin'?

Becca posted this and I thought I would try it for a lack of something better to post about!

Here's what you do. . .

1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the next three sentences.

5. Tag five people & post a comment here once you post it to your blog, so I can come see.

I'm not tagging anyone...just post a comment if you play along so I can come read yours! :)

"Maybe, but the train might derail, and then you'd be in a pickle," the sheriff replied.
"If Joey Garza's after you, you're in a pickle anyway," a lanky deputy named Ted Plunkert observed.
"If it was me, and I was driving the dern train and I seen a pile of rocks and though Joey Garza had piled it up, I'd pour on the steam," the deputy added.
- From Streets of Laredo by Larry McMurty.

Yep, I finished Lonesome Dove and couldn't pass up the next one. It's kind of embarrassing, reading old man westerns! But it's exciting - and somewhat comical! It's different than the historical romance stuff that I usually read so I guess I'm taking a break from the norm!

So What Do You Think?

How do you like my new look? I love it! Nan did a wonderful job and if you want one too just email her from the link on her blog and for a donation she will hook you up too!

Second Trip to the ER (ever)

Last night we had a bit of a close call. Luke was taking his nightly zyrte*k and zan*tak while I opened the door to the freezer to ask him what kind of vegetable he wanted for supper. He turned around and ran his little melon right into the corner of the freezer door. At first I thought he just bumped it and took him to a chair to hold him. I held his head and then rubbed his back then realized that something wasn't quite right. I looked at my hand and saw blood! I kept calm but kinda freaked out inside! Bob was at work so after I looked at it and put a cold washcloth on it I called him right away. I looked at it again and saw that it wasn't very big but still bloody. Bob decided to finish work but came home a little early. Luke was ok. He only cried for a couple of minutes but when we were watching TV after supper he said that he was really dizzy and was seeing double - I didn't tell him that these things might happen so I got nervous again. I decided to take him to the ER only to find out that it wasn't like a walk in clinic and thought our insurance might not cover it if it's not an actual at the brink of death emergency so I asked where else I could take him. She sent me to an "acute care clinic" on the other side of town. I wasn't really sure where it was at because our dr's are at the hospital. We found it pretty easily only to find that it was closed. They had moved the "acute care" to a different clinic down the street a few miles and it closes at 7:30pm...it was about 7:15. So we hurried back to the car again and drove there. We made it just in time to see the dr. They weren't exactly happy to admit us because our dr was at a different clinic and they were concerned our insurance wouldn't pay. They said to make sure we call and get a referral from our dr office in the morning. (I just remembered so I'm calling right now!) We got right in to see the dr and when he came in he asked if Luke's dad had tested positive for influenza yesterday! I almost laughed and he went through about 3 names before he got to Luke! The dr felt his head and looked at it and said it didn't need x-rays or CT scan or stitches or staples. But we did have to wake him up every hour on the hour all night to make sure he was responsive. I'm sure he slept right through it but waking up every hour wasn't exactly a great nights sleep for me! He still has quite a headache this morning and he said he's still a little dizzy but he's doing fine. He just freaked his mother out a bit and I'm sure he enjoyed every bit of attention he got because of it! LOL He's got his fathers thick skull!

Well, we are on our way to see Bob's family once again so I'm off to finish packing.

Hope you all have a
Happy Valentine's Day!

Got This in my E-mail Today...

A Coincidence???? A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye...and science shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes. A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food. Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that gra pes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food. A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters fo r brain function. Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys. Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body. Eggplant, Avocadoes and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? .... It takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them). Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics. Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries. Onions look like body cells. Today's research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes. "The news isn't that fruits and vegetables are good for you, it's that they are so good for you, they can save your life." David Bjerklie, TIME Magazine, Oct. 2003

Under the Weather

Nope, we're not sick here but we are cold. I didn't plan on blogging about our foul weather but today this is what I got in my e-mail weather alerts:

...WIND CHILL ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM CST /5 AM
MST/ SUNDAY...


A WIND CHILL ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM CST /5 AM MST/
SUNDAY.


AN ARCTIC FRONT IS MOVING SOUTHEAST THROUGH THE AREA TODAY.
BEHIND THE FRONT...STRONG GUSTY NORTHWEST WINDS 25 TO 35 MPH AND
VERY COLD AIR WILL COMBINE TO PUSH WIND CHILL READINGS TO 20 BELOW
TO 35 BELOW ZERO. THE BITTER COLD WIND CHILLS WILL REMAIN THROUGH
SATURDAY NIGHT.


DANGEROUS WIND CHILLS CAN CAUSE FROSTBITE TO EXPOSED SKIN IN LESS
THAN 30 MINUTES. IF YOU GO OUTDOORS...WEAR SEVERAL LAYERS OF
LOOSE-FITTING CLOTHING ALONG WITH A HAT AND GLOVES. BE SURE TO
COVER ANY EXPOSED SKIN.

The worst part about it is that the sky is blue and the sun is shining just like it would on a beautiful summer day! It looks a little windy out but the wind blows out here on the prairie most of the time so that's nothing new. I want to go out and go for a walk, get some fresh air with the kids, feel the sun on my face...but alas, that's not to be.

Luke was really looking forward to his ice fishing trip with the Royal Rangers today and it was canceled. So now both kids are stuck in the house since it's too cold to go out and play.

Yesterday was beautiful though - blue sky and sunshine and it was almost warm (we had a high of 26 degrees F!) so not every you know what extreme snow is...you don't day here is so cold but at times we have to stay in the house for a week at a time because of the cold...it kind of reminds me of the UP only we have the extreme cold here instead of the extreme snow (as much as 300 inches a year for those of you who think you know what extreme snow is, you don't really know until you live at Mt. Horace Greeley!) . At least we don't have 8 foot snow banks along the roads here! :)

I feel for you Nan, I don't envy the weather you must have way up there in Canada! But I'm sure I can imagine it with the cold we get now and the snow we used to get in the UP.

I am very grateful for my warm home on a day like today!

So we are under the weather as far as we are under it's control, we live our daily lives by it, and we can't wait for it to warm up again! :)

Please "Blink"!

I have been listening to my CD's lately and have found myself coming back to one that is pretty new. It's Plumb's latest called "Blink". I have been listening to her for years but I think this is my favorite CD of hers so far. It's really a lullaby CD for kids but it has some great mellow music on it. I put it on Jozie's MP3 player for her to listen to before she goes to bed and she even likes it (Luke prefers Skillet before bed...go figure!). I made sure that "In My Arms" was first on it because that's my favorite song on that album.

I would highly recommend it for anybody with kids. Great music that isn't either completely classical or goofy or even cheezy like most lullaby's are. The guitar in it is soft and sweet and blends beautifully with the piano.

Grrrrr......Aaaaa!

I have been expecting my yarn order Knit Pi*cks this week only to find out that I put the wrong address on my order! I have the same box number as we did in IN, just a different street name so I must have just flipped back to IN temporarily in my excitement to order my new yarn. Now the post office can't find it and it was (according to the tracking number) delivered to my local PO on Feb. 1st. I've been waiting for this since my birthday - Jan. 29th and now who knows when it will get here! BUT I talked to the company and they said they would take care of it and send me another order! Yay! So now I just have to look for it in the next couple of days...they didn't even seem to care that I am an idiot and don't even know my own address!

I'm So Excited!

And I just can't hide it! :) LOL

I have been at a bit of a stand still on my knitting lately. I haven't been doing much because my abilities have limited me to 2D projects. Not that there aren't plenty of 2D projects out there, I have just been tired of flat surfaces. I wanted more! So this weekend I decided I was going to teach myself something new. My SIL sent me the yarn and needles to make some really cute leg warmers for Jozie before Christmas (they were to be a gift but never got out of the balls of yarn stage!) but I couldn't knit in the round. I figured out the Magic Loop method of knitting and have almost finished my first leg warmer! Well, it's not going to be one that I give to Belle because I used a cheap practice yarn first to make sure I could do it. So I am going to turn it into a little pixie hat. I will post pictures when I am done but can't post the pattern because I got it out of this book. I got it from the library and think I have had it checked out most of the 6 months we have been here - I take it back only long enough for them to get it back on the shelf and then I check it out again! But it's a great book with really cute patterns and also great references.

My second thing that "I'm So Excited" about is I won a Bloggy Giveaway! I never win anything! Maybe Nan just thought I needed serious help with my blog template! I'm not sure but she is going to give my blog an extreme makeover! Yip-ee!

It's Quiz Time!

Nan over at Life is Like a Lunchbox took these quizes and I thought they looked fun. I took them all and here are my results!

***Warning: This is a bit of a boring post but it was fun to take then all!***



I guess you wouldn't have such a great time sticking around me if we were in a war together! You might want to find a different friend!
42%

It's sad. I'm worth even less while I am alive though! LOL
$4890.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth.

Again...you might want to consider finding a new friend! Preferable one who knows how to fight off the zombies!
48%

It's a good thing I don't have plans to go to the moon anytime soon! Although most of my answers lined up with being on the dark side of the moon...
10%

I never thought as myself as much of a geek. This one's no surprise.
17% Geek

You'd be pretty safe with me! I don't plan on eating any of you anytime soon! :)
46%

Um, yah. I didn't quite understand the point of this one but apparently my brain isn't very creative. I always thought I was fairly creative! Guess I was wrong.
43%

It's a good thing I have and regularly use spell check!

I Scored a 53%!

This one was a little surprising but they asked quite a few questions about music so maybe it was a bit biased!

Your Dominant Intelligence is Musical Intelligence

Every part of your life has a beat, and you're often tapping your fingers or toes. You enjoy sounds of all types, but you also find sound can distract you at the wrong time. You are probably a gifted musician of some sort - even if you haven't realized it. Also a music lover, you tend to appreciate artists of all kinds. You would make a great musician, disc jockey, singer, or composer.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

I've taken this one before and I think my results were about the same.

Your Linguistic Profile:

80% General American English 10% Upper Midwestern 5% Yankee 0% Dixie 0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Wasn't that fun? I never did figure out how many 5 year olds I could take on...I guess it didn't like my results because I couldn't get them to come up!

We Were Swimming!

Well, maybe not quite, but close!

We had an interesting day yesterday! Bob woke me up telling me I had to call our apartment office because we had water in our kitchen! I went down to check it out and after farther inspection we figured it hadn't come from our pipes under our kitchen sink, it came from under the fridge and stove where we have no water. I was a little confused but as Bob went out the door he almost slipped on the ice on the sidewalk and looked up with a funny look on his face. I went out (in my PJ's ...hopefully nobody else saw me!) and saw what he was...the apartment 2 doors down from us on the end (we live in a townhouse - there are 6 in our row) had water just flowing out the front door from the floor and the ceiling! There is nobody living there and apparently they didn't have any heat on in there and the pipes froze. Not a good thing. The manager said that there was 18 inches of water downstairs and the pipes froze upstairs causing the ceiling to collapse. The apartment between us and the flood has a single mother in it who has a baby and she got 6 inches of water in her downstairs. All of her school books were destroyed (she goes to the same college that Bob does) and a bunch of her baby's toys. She probably wasn't as upset as I would have been but she doesn't have renters insurance so she has no way to replace any of it. She packed what she needed and headed to her moms. She said that the apartment management isn't taking any responsibility for it except to clean up the water. I feel really bad for her.

Thank God we only got a little water in our kitchen. I cleaned it up and only ended up with about 2 gallons in my mop bucket. I don't know what we would have done if that would have been us. I don't think I would have been as calm about it as my neighbor lady was. We do have renters insurance because of Bob's tools. They are SnapO*n and are not insured by the school in the hanger where he keeps them. He also has one of those rolling tool boxes that is SnapO*n so there is thousands of dollars worth of tools that we had to insure somehow. Plus we also put on the guns and I'm calling about the computers (yes, we have 3 computers not including Bob's i*PAQ and laptop) today! They were on the floor next to the wall that had 6 inches of water on the other side of it. We would have lost them plus our video camera, a bunch of dvd's and videos, the leap pads (all of which are stored on bottom shelves), my sewing machine and almost all of our pictures which are in boxes at the bottom of a closet. Not to mention a bunch of my sewing materials and yarn which are stored in the same closet.

This is the first time we have had renters insurance and we have ALWAYS rented but I'm not even sure it would have covered our losses here because it might have been considered a flood or because it started in and came from another apartment they may not have covered it. My sewing and knitting stuff wouldn't have really been worth trying to claim and my pictures wouldn't have been able to have been replaced. It might be worth it to go to W*Mart and get some plastic tubs to store some of that stuff in.

Thankfully the flood didn't get any worse and we ended up moving some of our stuff around so the computers are now off the floor just in case it happens again. The cleaners came in and we surprised that I cleaned up the water - like I would just leave an inch of water standing in my kitchen! We did end up getting 2 of those high powered industrial fans in our kitchen (from the clean up company) to make sure everything is dry under the cupboards and appliances. They are LOUD and have to stay running until tomorrow morning. And it doesn't leave much room to move around in there tiny as it is! Hopefully they will take care of any moisture that soaked into the drywall and prevent mold from growing.