The day is over….and I’m relieved. Tomorrow will be a much more relaxed day.

I attended our monthly Parish Advisory Committee meeting today. I think this is roughly like a deacon or elder board in a civilian church…..though it’s members and reps from 3 very distinct “churches” that all work together…well anyway…today was that meeting. I had just enough time to run home, pick up kids and head out to the homeschool kick off – IFFFF everything went as planned. It didn’t. The meeting was 15 minutes late breaking up. {vbg}

I zipped out of the meeting and ran home. The children were ready to go. Bre and Krista opted not to swim today and asked me to leave Stacia home. I did. Krista ran out and bought Mike a shirt for tonight and they did “things” while the rest of us went to the kick off.

SACSHA homeschool kick off was at Brown’s pool. It was fun. The pool has several slides, diving boards and such. All in all it was a good day. Josiah and Jamin were able to come to. We all had fun.

We rushed home at 4 and had time to steam shirts, take showers, and get gussied up for our “photo shoot”. Colin of Matchless Photography took our photos at the Visitor Center. I think they are going to be nice. A few of our members were surprised at his dreadlocks but hey I told them they wanted me to get a My Space and be cool. At least *I* wasn’t wearing dreadlocks…though come to think of it that may take care of my terrible brittle over-processed hair problem. I’m counting down the days now until me get to get my hair colored again.

Dressed as the Von Trapp Family Singers, we made our way to Scholtskys for dinner and then out to the bat bridge to show the girls the nightly bat exodus.

Quickly in other news, because everyone is waiting for Bre (on the phone to a friend) and me…..Mike was NOT given the small pox shot today. They said that it would be dangerous with our “factors”. He’ll get the shot in theater. He DID get a typhoid shot – ouch I remember those. He DID come home with a new uniform that he can wear next Thursday afternoon – it has the major rank on it. Jared seemed a bit disappointed. He said, “Don’t you get stripes on your shoulder with this promotion?” LOL I guess we should explain the whole military hierarchy thing to him one of these days – he is 12 and he does want to go to the Academy….

BUZZZZZZZ

Nolan and Zander both have the G family cowlick.....well they wanted skater hair.....yesterday Zander was quite taken aback by Andrew's spikes when we met to bowl. He kept telling Andrew, "Your hair is sticking up but mine isn't". This was quite funny because his WAS sticking up despite water, gel, and hair spray. He had a major "Alfalfa" going on!

Today he exclaimed, "Mom, my HAIRS sticking up".

"Yep, it is", I told him.

"Well...hmmm...let's cut it!", he replied...and so we did.

BEFORE

AFTER

BLOG COMMENTS

Ok - I would love to hear from everyone. How do YOU handle blog comments? Or how do you think they should be handled.

On My Space the comments are all left on a front page and everyone reads them and it is great fun.

I have my name so that when I leave a comment folks can click on it and see who I am and evidently get my email address because several send me personal emails when I comment on their blogs (not folks who would KNOW my email address).

Sometimes I leave comments after their comments - but as some mention - you never know if folks go back and READ your reply. I always do. {bg}

I've copied and pasted comments into a new blog entry and responded to several at once....

What do those of you who blog do? If you don't blog I'd still like to know which way seems best to you for answering your comments.

The question of the day.....

BREAKFAST

Jamin has been telling me that I should open a restaurant with all the new "healthy" things I've learned and recipes I've adapted. We've joked about it. We are kicking around a retreat center for worn out pastors and women and such.....and think a bed/breakfast may play in there.....

Over the trip he told me he'd like to own a restaurant some day. I think he could do this. Last night he and I had talked about an idea he had. Sunday he tried some doughnuts that didn't work as well as we'd hoped. The whole grains just don't work the same way. AND we don't much care for a lot of deep frying. Monday or Tuesday he used the same dough and baked them and they were really wonderful, flakey bisquits....something I've been trying to achieve since leaving white flour behind. Last night, we discussed how to fill them. I woke up this a.m. to wonderfully filled bisquit squares......apple pie filling in some and butter, cinamon and pecans in the others. They were yummy.

If you think of us today and read this early - PRAY for us. We've got an impossible schedule - many appointments chapel, homeschool and personal AND Mike has to get a small pox vacine unless he can talk them out of it. It does seem he had one when he was a child - but this only means they want to give him MORE of the vacinne.

I have the best intentions of getting things DONE but the list is so very long, and the days are so very short….LOL Today we got a few things done here and then we all went to Mr. Gatti’s. We met up with friends and had a great time visiting and playing. This is a pizza/salad/pasta buffet with games and bumper cars etc….a lot like Chuck E Cheese.

THEN we met up at the bowling ally for a game with Adrienne and her kids and Tricia and her kids. It was fun to have all the older kids with us today. Josiah is working fewer hours this week as school is back in session and the mall traffic has decreased.

Back at home I put a roast and carrots in the oven, made Jodi’s Potato casserole recipe (I’ll post the recipe) and then ran to Wal-mart and Sam’s with Bre. We had a milk crisis. I was out of whole milk and Zander cannot have any more off program foods for about a year! LOL As a result of a kitchen mishap I threw out the mismatched – put-together- food processor. Jamin made some great sourdough bread earlier in the day that was wonderful with dinner.
I THOUGHT Stacia was down for the night but she is up. Mike came home with the news that he will be leaving here one day earlier than we expected. We watched the girl’s power point presentation of their “purpose plan”. They are awesome. Bre’s passion is hurting people and the church and Krista’s is the Air Force.

Tuesday - 30 minutes left of the day and I believe all is finally quiet at home.

Mike is working late hours - both trying to catch up from leave time and getting things at the office/chapel prepared for his upcoming extended absence.

Josiah didn't have to work today. We all voted to eat left overs and have an extra movie night this week. We had three movies waiting from Netflix when we got home. We watched *The Rookie* - a great baseball tale set among other places...right here in W TX. Shoot - the try outs were even set in THIS town. {G}

Earlier in the day the girls (all of em! Yippee) and I went in search of matching shirts for our family photo - scheduled for Thursday. I was all for WHITE but Mike wanted light blue polos. We looked. We ended up with some light blue and some darker blue to break it up. Everyone is set except for Stacia. I may dress her in a light blue dress. When Arielle modeled her new blue shirt we all decided it was time to take her shopping for her first training bra. Poor thing. She was blushing and Bre said, "Well Mom USED to hold them up to us like this to see if they fit" and proceeded to demonstrate on Krista. I insisted that I remember no such thing!! We cracked up. Without thinking, about 30 seconds later I said, "Arielle, turn around and lets see if these are the right width for you". Of course back at home the fun continued as Bre and I wanted to see if the thing fit her. I told Bre that poor Arielle is going to have a room full of Mom and sisters the day after she gives birth wanting to know if all is well. LOL BTW I am very careful what I share about the kids so that I dont' invade their privacy and Arielle said I could share the story about shopping.

We had planned to spend today with Debby and her son Michael...somehow we missed each other.

Jamin and Jared put togehter another big bookshelf for me. ARGH. I may have to start ditching books. We moved the smaller one that was in the library into the younger boy's room. All the children books are now in their room. I still need to organize the rest of the books. More than straightening the shelves I really need to finally get them all entered into a data base....I think that may be my "deployment project"...we'll see....there are so many good ones lining up.

I've been Tagged!!

By Jen at oki'mlosingit, here are my answers....

This is a FIRST - but I have time this afternoon....and it was fun. LOL So do I just list my five at the bottom and wait to see how long it takes them to notice? {smirk}

5 things in my freezer:

1. Bananas
2. Red Peppers
3. Homemade Ice cream
4. Strawberries
5. Homemade organic bread {G}

5 things in my closet:

1. Shoes/clothes
2. Zag full of meds
3. A projector
4. Adrienne's son's birthday gift
5. Two Cameras

5 things in my car:

1. Assorted water bottles
2. Car seat
3. Co-op Catalogs
4. Spare container of diaper wipes
5. TX Backroads - guide
*usually better things in there but Mike and the kids cleaned it out thoroughly when we got home.

5 things in my purse:

1. Wallet
2. Checkbook
3. Cell phone
4. PDA
5. Bowling Punch cards x 6

5 things in my wallet:

1. Visa Card
2. Drivers License
3. Sam's Card
4. Receipts
5. Military ID

5 people I tag: (do this only if you want to; I had a hard time thinking of 5 folks who wouldn't care if other visited their blogs or what not. LOL )

anothernaturewalk - Learning all the Time - Jodi
paxworld
Jen G
Lisa's Homeschool Circus
Life with Boys