Sunday, October 22, 2006
Jared (12) - Upon hearing that we were going to watch *Nicholas and Alexandra*: "Is this another one of those OLD 1990's Chick Flicks??? :::snort::: 90's old? I'm ancient I tell you.
Jamin (15) - After watching the above mentioned movie: "Have you ever noticed that there is a bad wife behind every tyrannt?" Ummm...I took offense to his comment. He began to give me examples....Ahab, Louie the whatever, Charles, Nicholas, Hitler (mistress)....All RIGHT already! Of course this is making me think of the importance of being a Godly Helpmate....but I'm not ready to type that up. I need to go work on I John. However, since my computer has crashed I have no where to store my 1/2 formed thoughts...and if I don't put them somewhere...they leak out. :::snort:::
Religious Education, Cheddars, Nap, Chapel Service, Ice cream - that's it.
OK....maybe I can fill it out a bit more than that.
Jamin made the dough for 7 15 in pizzas and 3 pan pizzas...tucked safely into the freezer. He's been working on adapting my Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
He uses white chocolate, almond flavoring and almonds. Yumm!!! Cy made a "monster cookie" with them tonight...I made a "mini".
It's been a bit of a "blah" type day...not a bad day...sort of a low energy day. At 7 weeks of Mike being gone, I think it is setting into my psyche that this is NOT going to be the normal 4 - 6 week trip. I feel a bit unsettled thinking of how much time is still left before he is home. It's when your husband is gone that you realize how much of your strength you pull from him. This is good, because God is wanting me to draw it from Him. I miss him.
I tried to call the girls and my folks and can't reach them either.
Please understand that though this is a low energy, high emotion day - I'm still deliberately choosing joy.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
I know that because Heather sent me the coolest excel program. It shows weeks, day,hours, minutes, seconds....graphs and such....pretty colors. Very fun.Cy had to be at work early this a.m. I set the rest of the kids down and asked them what they wanted for a menu this week.
Pizza
Chicken Divan
Stir Fry/Quesadillas (sp)
Encore Presentation
Grill - steaks and burgers
We've had three of those meals in the past two weeks. I'm going to have to talk to them about variety. :::snort:::
Arielle, Nolan, Stacia and I headed out to run a couple of errands. Oops....no car seat in the Honda. I had the Honda because it needs gas and Josiah was at work. We had to leave Stacia and headed out again. The Honda wouldn't turn over. :::snort:::
Ready for the irony. I KNEW I should ride 10 miles today on my bike. I got tired and decided to stop at 7.2. Well...I was expected at the library and HEB so I HAD to go get the van. I rode my bike to the mall. Total distance of both rides? 10.2 miles. :::snort::: I've done really well with discipline this week. I decided that until I could get the internal thing going again it was time to pull out the Thin Within tools and use them. I thought about joining Weight Watchers but realized that since I KNOW what to do it really is a matter of doing it and counting points and logging them isn't much different than the Thin Within tools....I began logging food, noting hunger levels, checking when I exercise (TW goal is to move your body at least 30 minutes every day), checking off the principles and keeping track of water. I think it's been a good week. Of course, NOW, all my local friends think I'm pregnant because I'm forever running to the bathroom. Three times at dinner the other night. :::snort:::
Back home with the van I discovered that Stacia had fallen asleep. Arielle, Nolan and I headed out. I picked up TWO books "Dark Tort" and "Cherry Cheesecake Murder". I'm not sure which I'll read first.



Arielle got a call to go over to Ashely's house. I asked Jared to ride his bike over with her. I thought they would enjoy the bit of independence. Unfortunately, Jared's bike chain messed up and he had to carry his bike all the way back home. This simply wasn't the day for us with "transportation".
This evening the ones who were home watched *Nicholas and Alexandra*. I missed the end when I had to go pick up Josiah. I know how it ended but I may try to watch it anyway. I did get several calls during the three hour movie. This was a netflix movie for school.
I got a letter in the mail from the rehab spot asking me to call as soon as possible to discuss Nolan's treatment...wonder why they couldn't call me. LOL
That's about it for the day.
I need to make something clear....just because *I* need to.
re: post on a mother's love...I am NOT a child who never knew unconditional love. My parents are Christians and I should have been clear that I was not thinking of my mother as I wrote, so as not to leave any doubt in anyone's mind. {g}
Also - obviously I've been thinking the mentoring thing over.....I've always said my MOM was my mentor...but that isn't stated in my entry. There are so many areas and aspects of my personality that I can trace directly back to the training and love my parents provided.
When I got married, however, and began having children my Mom was thousands of miles away in the Philippines....in an age when we still communicated via snail mail and very expensive phone calls....it was hard to get that "on the spot", generation to generation, thing going that many of you living in the same town as your mothers when you got married had. This is NOT a complaint.....God had their lives and our lives mapped out and it has all turned out "good".....but I wanted to be sure, as I reread that post, that no one came away with the impression that I was saying "I come from a pitsy background where no one ever looked out for me and my Mom was never my mentor". She was my mentor and continues to be MORE of a mentor these days, now that she is so easily accessible.
I've told my folks, if I had my way we'd make them Mike's dependents and haul them around the world with us. Shoot....they ARE used to moving every three years! They are going to get bored stiff in ONE home, in ONE town...oh yeah there are children and grandchildren in that town. LOL I suppose they've been there for 3 or 4 years now and aren't complaining. Hey, I need to ask them if they are getting that "itch" - I've always wondered if I'll have the itch to move every 3 years after we retire....because I've spent lots of my life doing just that.
Anyway, yes, there are hurts in my life that God has healed...because I'm human and live in a fallen world...but those hurts are not stemming from the fact that I was neglected as a child. Nope - I was and continue to be loved. I think my Mom knows all this, but I wanted to be sure ya'all know all this.
BTW - what I've learned now that two of my children are adults...God has this marvelous way of covering many of our parenting shortcomings with GRACE....because ain't none of us perfect. I watch my daughters and think "I want to be like THEM". :::snort:::
I love you, Mom. Talk to ya in a few hours.....though I'm fairly sure you are awake at 5:30 a.m. :::snort:::
Friday, October 20, 2006
It was COLD this a.m. Stacia woke up at 4 a.m. and didn't go back down until 6 a.m. I thought about going for my bike ride. It was time. It was also 50* outside. Thanks to nature - or thyroid disease to be exact - I'm always COLDER than the rest of the family. I was FREEZING!!! I decided to climb back into bed. Zander had climbed into my bed and I took full advantage of his warm, little body to warm up my ice cube feet. :::snort:::
We zipped through school.
We went to the park! I'm trying to load pictures but for some reason none of the park ones will work. I will try to download firefox on this computer "soon". Yes, Adrienne, my kids are burned and so am I. I can't believe it. It was a gorgeous 75*....but we got burned. This was a newer park in town and we had a blast. It was our first time to play with Adrienne's kids since they've been locked in their house with hand, foot and mouth for a couple of weeks.
BIG NEWS, our town has recently opened a new "super Walmart" - which I've stayed out of just fine. {G} Turns out it is the "3rd largest" supermarket in the world and the largest super walmart in TX. Or so the line goes.
I wonder why my font changed colors and more importantly why I can't change it back. LOL
I realized (there it went - back to normal) yesterday that it stresses me out big time to have to be somewhere at a certain time. I need the freedom to take 40 minutes on reading if we are enjoying it and not feel like we have to rush so that we can be out the door by a certain time. I KNOW this is why God impressed on me last year not to plan things during the school hours. Thursdays are House of Faith and I find myself rushing to make it in time (1:15). For this reason, I decided that I can't take on the science co-op that I was invited to join. It sounded SO FUN!!! I WANTED to do it...but I didn't want to be rushing through school on both Thursday and Friday every other week....and soon Nolan should have speech again.
Yes, I called the school. They have a new therapist there and they'd simply lost him in the transition. They thought rehab was calling and who knows what rehab thought. They told me on Tuesday or Wednesday that rehab would be calling the next day. I guess I better call them on Monday. LOL Anyway - that is always a rush, rush day too. I've become a homebody....I love to have the time for us to linger over an interesting topic, project or even play.
I got home and began the deep dish pizza while Jamin and Josiah ran out to pick up our new Pampered Chef Pizza Stone. We had pizza....said goodbye to Rascal...went to the car wash and watched a netflix movie. We got SIX discs today...turns out that two of the movies we chose for school are over 3 hours long....I'm not sure which one to watch....we can't watch 2 2 hour films and 2 3 hour films in the same week.