Stacia loves Produce co-op day. Apples are her favorites and we have to watch her closely as she now has TEETH and loves to chew on apples....

SATURDAY

The day began with Mike helping John and Melody with their move. I made some waffles for the kids and then took Josiah to work. Jamin was out doing a lawn. When he returned home I drove him over to Mike and Charly’s to weed their flower bed. He made $100 in the last two days. Yippee…he’s almost earned ½ of his trip. I’m so very proud of the way the boys have tackled this. We really thought we’d end up paying for their missions trip since we don’t have a “church” backing us. Back at home, we tackled a few jobs around here. Jared had been mowing the yard – his first time solo. Mike and he then trimmed some tree branches that were scratching on the roof.

Another mystery book showed up in my mailbox.

I had a host of goals for the kitchen today…didn’t reach them all but did keep busy. I got 4 more “waffle mixes” made for next week. I froze another tray of grapes. Frozen Grapes are an awesome summer treat. They are 100% natural popsicles. I also throw them into smoothies. We got a load of apples drying and threw some kiwis in too. I made 3 kinds of salad dressing and a double batch of granola. Jamin ended up watching over this as I ran to the store. Mike came in and suggested a trip to the pool.

You got it – we bought our family pass and spent a couple of hours at the pool. I thought it would be very crowded but it wasn’t bad at all. In fact during the last hour it was just us and one other family in the pool. {G} We chuckled when one of the female lifeguards said, “Alex, I remember you!” Another pool funny… a little girl who looked to be about 9 years old was fascinated with Stacia. She asked, “Can I touch her?” I figured that would be o.k. Then she said, “Is she real?” after touching her. THEN she asked, “Are you her grandmother?” THIS is why I dye my hair and don’t care if it is blonde. :::snort::: BTW contrary to Adrienne’s dire predictions my hair has not turned green yet…but I’m just waiting for it to do so. LOL

Alex (Zander) had a great day today. He’s been “clean” for 6 days now and has been steadily getting more and more “fun, loving and disciplined”. He began it by climbing into our bed for cuddling. He told us he loved us. When we drove Cy to work he told Cy he loved him. He didn’t have meltdowns. He worked the apple peeler/corer/slicer and was proud of the trays of apples. He patiently waited at the pool for me to show up with the passes. He listened and obeyed well at the pool. He PLAYED WITH a new friend, Lilly, in the kiddie pool. I wish I could capture the day.

We rounded out the evening by watching “March of the Penguins” which we got from Netflix. We tried to watch it last night but it kept stopping. Mike discovered it worked fine on our $30 player and so he brought that out and hooked it up to the projector so we could watch the movie. We are really enjoying being able to order movies from Netflix. Last week we watched “Newsies” – a wonderful movie. We have quite few movies in our que.

The Pool is Open!

Base pools opened yesterday! This signals the true beginning of summer. There are two pools on base and one out at the rec camp on the lake. We chose the lake. This pool has a small kiddie pool that is 1 ½ feet deep…..then it has a big pool that starts at 3 feet and goes to 8 or 10 feet. There are two slides in the big pool for the kids to play on. The best part is that the seating area and the kiddie pool is under a car-port type shade. Yesterday was also the last day of school so the pool was fairly quiet. It was a good day to go and let the lifeguards get reacquainted with us. I’m praying we can make it through the year without getting kicked out. Of course, that only happened once last year and I suspect that that female will no longer be working….we’ll see.

The a.m. was produce co-op. For some reason we ate less fruit and veggies the last couple of weeks. I’m not sure why. I’ve had several days of eating nothing but fruits and veggies’; I would think our consumption would be up. I ordered a bit less this week. As soon as we were done with co-op I raced to Academy to find suits for Zander, Jared and myself. Charly, a local friend, had called Thursday while I was online ordering from Lands End. She told me that Academy had sports tank top things and tennis skorts that worked well for a suit…and cheaper too. We had about 3o minutes to find the suits we needed. Some of you will remember my swim suit lament from a few months back so I won’t repeat it…..I’ll just say that when I did the Land’s End measurements I needed a size 6 top and a size 12 bottom and frankly I couldn’t quite figure out which size to order…either size could cause problems. :::snort::: The size 14 I bought a few months ago still has TAGS but it is NOT going to work. Mike told me yesterday that it was far too big and saggy (not his words) on top. If anyone wants a modest, 2 -piece, size 14…black with pink piping, swim suit…let me know. OH – the same day that Charly called, Adrienne & Porshe (her daughter) dropped by. Porshe had some racing suits for me to try that no longer fit her. I was sure they wouldn’t fit…but they did. They are a bit “sleeker” in the tush area than I wanted so I needed to either find the suit that Charly was talking about at Academy or a pair of shorts. With 30 minutes ticking down the pressure was on. I wasn’t sure I was finding the tops that Charly was talking about…not sure that anything I was seeing would work. Jared found a suit. Jamin found a suit for Zander and we were down to 10 minutes. I took the tennis skort that I had found in and decided if it worked I’d buy it to wear over the racing suits and I’d try to find another 2-piece type thing later. The shorts I took in to try on were too big. The skort looked cute…until I twirled and bent and realized it was NOT a skort and did not have built in shorts with it….oops. I grabbed a smaller size of shorts on the way to the checkstand and we were out of there, home and on the way to the pool in no time.

It was a fun day at the pool. Kelly, Heather and Adrienne were there with their children. Mike was helping John and Melody move. Yippee – they are getting a 4 bedroom home. I realized I’m going to need much more in the way of pool snacks this summer. We almost downed a 5 lb bag of peanuts in the shells. I have the shelled – no salted kind but at that price I don’t plan to go through 5 lbs of them at the pool. I tried to find more in the shell at Sam’s last night and they were out. Carrots work well for the pool too – they stay crisp. We also had cheddar bunnies and banana chips…..anyway it was a fun day. I was able to get in the water and make some memories with the little ones. We were able to visit and the children played. While I was in the pool I noticed and always pad in the filter. I wasn’t sure of what I’d seen so called Heather over to look. She went and told the lifeguard and the poor young man had to clear the pool and remove said trash. Then we all had to sit for 30 minutes…I think next time I see something like that I’ll wait for the scheduled pool break to say anything. {G} The summer season is off and running.

Jamin has earned $50 mowing yards this a.m. I need to get going and take him to another friends house. He’s going to weed a flower bed for her. Jared is going to help him. Josiah is at work – until 10:30 tonight – another 10 hour work day. Mike is helping out with the move some more today…..

That’s our day so far.

A Retraction of Sorts....

Previously, I mentioned that I was totally frustrated with the tortured interpretations of two studies in which I was participating. First - I want to say, as I mentioned last week, that both studies DO have good points. Both studies HAVE encouraged me to walk closer to Jesus.

Now - here's the retraction. In my entry I may have given you the impression that I think that we can't "know" what is doctrinally correct. That was NOT my intention. I believe there are things we can KNOW. I also believe that it is possible for us to THINK we know more than we do. {g}

ALL Scripture is inspired by God. What bothers me is when we so desperately want things in neat little boxes that we are willing to overlook the Scriptures that weaken our stance or that explain why others have a different stance. As I've learned to study the Word inductively, there have been several areas where I've had to say, "Hmm.....there are solid arguments on both side of this fence". At that piont, I think we need to hold these things in balance and let God reveal to us in His time how it fits....and those are the things that I think we may not understand until we get HIS perspective on how all the pieces of the puzzle fit.

I do believe we can know truth. I do believe that there are rights and wrongs. I just am heart broken because I know so many who have been totally turned off and pushed away from CHRIST because Christians had made their CONVICTIONS more a litmus for fellowship than a belief in Christ. I know folks who were pushed away from God because Christians communicate "if you want to be a Christian you'll have to do x, y, z" (vote a certain way, educate a certain way, treat animals a certain way, parent a certain way, eat a certain way, dress a certain way, wear your hair a certain way, have a certain number of children.....and the list goes on and on). I've had friends say "If I have to do x, y or z to be a Christian - I don't want to be a Christian". This saddens me. Jesus ate with sinners. Jesus partied with sinners. Jesus loved sinners. Jesus condemned the pharisees and partied with the sinners. We condemn the sinners and party with the pharisees. Yes...Jesus spoke truth but He did it with grace. We give the impression that a person must get all gussied up before they can attempt to know Christ....and that saddens me greatly.

I have STRONGLY held CONVICTIONS. I share them when asked. My life speaks of my convictions without me ever opening my mouth. I simply don't want my convictions to make others think they have to look just like me to be a Christian....because looking like me was NOT the goal of Christ coming to earth as a man and giving His life for my salvation.

Hope that helps to clear up any misconceptions.

Golden Guides - Birds

We ordered several of these little guides, published by St. Martins Press, last week from Home Science Tools/Home Training Tools. I am so pleased with them.

They are smaller than Audubon. However - they have been perfect for our limited use. They have bright pictures, maps and a bit of a blurb to go with each picture.

So far we've identified not only the Red Cardinal, Doves and Grackles....but an Eastern Bluebird, a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, and a Northern Mockingbird in our yard. The maps are showing us that birds from most any region tend to end up in this part of TX during some part of the year. We also are in the "overlapping section" of the Western/Eastern birds...no wonder the air is ALIVE with bird calls around here.

We also got these guides for insects, moths/butterflies, and wildflowers. Though these guides are not as thorough as Audabon they are perfect for lower grammar students....and really we find we are ALL grabbing them first.

*8 Minutes in the Morning* by Jorge Cruise

I first heard about this book on SHS - and I was skeptical. {g} I tend to avoid "fad diets", "fad workout programs" (and "fad curriculums", "fad parenting books" for that matter).

I kept hearing about the book and so I put it on my PaperBack Swap wish list. I got it months ago and Jamin read it. {bg} I finally read it a few weeks ago.

The basic premise of the book is that the most effecitve way to lose weight is to add some strength training to your routine. This builds muscle. Muscle burns energy and speeds up your metablolism. Jorge gives you two moves to do for 6 mornings of the week. The warm up, moves and then warm downs take 8 minutes. He insists you do it in the a.m. as the "evidence" shows that this sort of weight thing will raise your metabolism for 15 hours...you get the benefit throughout the day. Each day has you working on 2 different body parts. I like having different moves the same area...in other words there are 3 or 4 moves for abdominals and not JUST CRUNCHES. I can't remember if I shared Tuesday's revelation. When told to lift until my shoulder blades were off the floor,I decided my problem is NOT weak abs but abnormally long shoulder blades. That's the gist of the weight things. He does have a section on power walking but I've not done that because I'm riding my bike instead.

There is also a section on food. He had a lot of good information on Omegas. He tells you to eat the Omega oils (Olive, flax, safflower) with each meal....We did add that because we read that info elsewhere too. He says to eat only ONE fruit a day - I think that's hoey. He says you must eat three meals a day - I also think that is hoey. He allows for a lot of foods that we no longer eat (pork, crab, shrimp). Really, I decided that my focus is on health and that I like the changes we made in our diet. I also decided there was no reason to throw out my thin within principles...so I didn't. I didn't follow the food portion of the program.

You are guaranteed to loose 2 lbs a week if you follow the program. I only added the moves in and kept eating the way I do and fasting the way I do (totally seperate from weight loss but connected with eating patterns). The only big change I see is the moves. I lost 3 lbs the first week. I lost 1 lb last week. Today I tried to order a swim suit from Lands End (another story) and so had to measure myself. I remembered that I was supposed to be measuring and weighing each week and hadn't. I compared.... Here's my stats...and the men can just skip right on to the next entry. BTW I've considered starting another blog for posts on healthy eating and weight/exercise like Kelly and Jen...but shoot...I don't think I have time. There's are SOOOO cute...I'm tempted. I decided for the time being ya'all can just delete entries on organic food, exercise etc if you don't want to read them. LOL

2 weeks:

down 4 lbs, lost .5" in bust (NOT needed nor tried for LOL); lost 1.25 in wasit; lost .5 in thing, lost .25 in calf and lost TWO inches in the hips.....it's a start.

Arielle's Mr Gatti Party

Ater re-scheduling three times we finally had a party! {G} It really did turn out to be a blessing that it was in the evening. It was much more fun to have entire families attend. Unfortunately, there was also a daycare and several baseball teams celebrating at Mr. Gatti's last night - so it was busy! Very busy! I get overwhelmed with the noise and such in the game room.

The party was all that Arielle had hoped for. Below are a few pictures.

It's hard to believe that Arielle is 9 years old. Life has sure changed for us a LOT since her birth. I was pregnant with her when Mike went into the Air Force chaplaincy. Since then we moved from a small town in Montana to Great Falls, MT, San Antonio, TX, Anchorage, AK, and now back in TX. My dear Uncle died on the day that Arielle was born. That always leads to thoughts of Uncle Bill and Grams on her birthday. Those thoughts are becoming sweeter with each year and less of the bitter/sweet thing.

The Queen

Cy & Stacia

Finally - Bumper Cars!