1/26/07

I have done it again.... gone a while without posting. Sorry. Some nights I just don't have the energy or the words to say anything after being at school all day. It has been a good week, but busy. I am glad it is Friday.

My picture of today is from our brief snow last week. It was so neat how the snow "glowed" when I tried to get the bird at the feeder.

Mikayla lost her second tooth on Tuesday night!! She was still a bit scared but did really well when Steve pulled it out. She was tickled pink to be "tied" with Wesley on the amount of teeth lost. :) Her permanent teeth are coming in so she won't be toothless very long.

I am feeling a bit under the weather. It isn't that I am feeling horrible, but I have a cold that isn't wanting to leave me alone and my voice started leaving me this afternoon. I guess after teaching all day it couldn't take much more. I was actually surprised it lasted till the end of the day.

It is supposed to be a nice weekend around here. I have been asked to take pictures of another friend of mine's daughter. I am a bit nervous because I want to do them right. I hope they turn out alright. What I do with my own children is one thing but when you do for someone else's they may not turn out like you had hoped!!! We'll see. It is supposed to be in the lower 60's tomorrow so at least it won't be so cold that we will "freeze."

I was going to come home yesterday and clean the bathrooms and get a jump start on the sweeping/mopping/vacuuming, but that didn't happen. Between talking with parents and friends who stopped by at school and then having to make phone calls once I got home I never got in my groove to get it done. Today I just plain didn't want to do it with dealing with this cold and loss of voice. I made the kids clean their bathrooms. Tomorrow we'll work on the rest.

Wesley has had a tough week around here. He is learning the value of listening and obeying the first time. Boys are definitely different from girls... I *think* I will be glad when he turns seven. ha!! I don't want to wish their life away but I would like for him to mature a bit more right now. I know boys are later in the maturing process.

We are having Chinese tonight... I have to watch how much I eat! This diet thing is very interesting. I did manage to lose 2 pounds but for what I went through to get there it surely wasn't pleasant. ha!!! I am really not having as big of a problem with not eating a lot of the foods I love, but it is the constant "obsessing" over what I am eating that is annoying. I hope it pays off.

I am off to find a movie for all of us to see. I probably should grade some papers, too, so I don't have to worry about them this weekend. :) Have a good one and enjoy some hot chocolate for me....

1/19/07

This picture was taken yesterday. I thought it was neat the way the droplet was frozen and hanging off of the leaf.

A wild day at school but one of fun. I have a stack of papers to grade this weekend. :)

DATE NIGHT! Tonight has been so great. The kids went to a sleepover at their best friends house tonight and seemed to be having a blast when we left. Steve and I went out to eat and then rode over to the mall to walk around a bit. We didn't find a place we could by CD's so we went to Barnes and Noble. Let's just say I love that place. Steve and I both do, actually.

I was on a mission of CD looking. Have I told you about the CD's my brother gave me for Christmas? They are Il Divo and The Ten Tenors. (You can click on the links and it will take you to their websites.) Well, I absolutely love them and went in search for more. A year or so ago my brother and I went to see the Ten Tenors in person, and they were awesome, so I knew about them. Then he introduced me to Il Divo. Oh my... I just can't get over how wonderful those men can sing. I have listened to my CD's from Christmas over and over again so I figured I need a couple of new ones to throw in the mix. I can't wait to scrap while listening to them. I also bought the soundtrack to the play Mama Mia! which has all of ABBA songs in it. My brother and I went to see that, too, so we are totally understanding the music. Plus.. it takes us back. hee hee Steve just doesn't "get" that CD. :)

Have I said that I am on a diet????? It has been interesting. My body is in shock and trying to revolt. It is not the easiest thing and it has caused me to have a new appreciation for people who have had to lose weight. I never had this problem growing up. I find the older I get the more I grow OUT so I had to change something. Steve and I are working on it together so that will help. I am missing my chocolate. I can't have a lot of it. I was not a junky food eater before anyway, but chocolate is my weakness. Allowing less food into my system on a daily basis should reduce the size of my waistline. I hope. hee hee Low blood sugar has been an issue with me this week and I have had to "tweek" a few things. I can't get over how hard it is. I'll feel better when I see some changes, I guess.

Well, I am off to spend some quality time with my sweetie since this IS my date night. :) He is building a fire in our wonderful wood stove. It feels weird, though, to have the kids at someone else's house. I do miss them. Have a wonderful night. Go enjoy some music you love. :)

1/18/07

I must say this has been quite an interesting day. We started out the day getting ready for school as we normally do. It had started snowing and sleeting but we knew it wasn't supposed to do that much so we left at normal time. I was almost at school, driving slowly, of course, when my phone rings to let me know school had been cancelled. It wasn't THAT bad but they were afraid it would get worse as the children started coming to school. Well, I went back home and we crashed on the couch for a bit. When we woke up we found that it was raining and the snow was melting. I figured I had better get outside and take some photos before it all melted. I didn't get any amazing shots, but at least I'll have some with snow on them for a few posts. ha!! (this is of our blooming camillia bush... I thought this one was kind of nice...) I couldn't stay out long, either, because of the rain. Mikayla walked around in the mush for a while just to make some prints. Pretty much this was a wasted day from school because all it has done since 9:00 is rain.

Now, I say wasted, but truly I didn't WASTE the day. I worked on cleaning this house and made the kids clean up their rooms and the office where they have made a mess. They have been at it all day... does that tell you how much mess they have scattered this week???? We are now finishing up cleaning. I really had hoped to have it done before now (5:30) but it just hasn't. We did manage to get a little bit of hot chocolate in us before the cleaning began, but I am not sure if a S'more will get done tonight. We'll see!!

I worked on my photo screen my brother gave me for Christmas. I have put in pictures of flowers I have taken as well as pictures of Wesley and Mikayla when they were little. I went down memory lane a little with those today. I can't get over how much they have changed and grown up. I also can't believe they'll be seven in a couple of months!!! Anyway, I still have a few pictures that I have taken to make into enlargements. When I get it completed I'll take a picture of it so you'll see what I am talking about!!

I also organized some of my scrapbook stuff today. I changed out an organizer that was not doing the job to one I had put in my closet for safe-keeping. It is more sturdy and should do a better job of keeping my pages and miscellaneous papers together. I find that my stuff itself isn't the most organized because while I create I make a serious mess, but my pages have to be linear! ha!!!! One of my friends teases me about that a lot. :)

Mikayla was VERY excited last night. She lost her first tooth. She was scared when Steve was trying to pull it out. She didn't like the thought of it coming out. She did great, though, and it finally came out. Her two permanent teeth are coming in behind the baby ones so they really needed to get out of there. She still has that one that is hanging on but hopefully it will be out in a few days. Here is her picture right after Steve pulled the tooth. She was beside herself. :) The Tooth Fairy came and gave her four quarters. (I hope that is what the Tooth Fairy gave Wesley for his first tooth... she couldn't exactly remember!!) Anyway, she was cute when she got up this morning. She said "This isn't American Girl Doll money but I think it is United States of American money!" I cracked up.

We are now getting ready for supper so I guess I need to close for now. Hope you have enjoyed my first picture of winter. It is supposed to do something around here again on Sunday. We'll see. I just hate we missed a day of school for rain, but I know those in the higher up jobs have to think of the safety of everyone based on what they know. At least I got my house clean!!! And, believe it or not, I do have some papers I can grade tonight. ha!!

1/13/07

The day finally came when I drove past my uncle's farm and it was no longer there. I wanted to cry but I didn't. I wanted to drive closer to it but I couldn't. I know it made it easier to see it gone since it has been about a year since I took all of those pictures, but when something has been the same way all of your life, and it belonged to someone in your family, you find it is harder to swallow when it is actually not there anymore. I couldn't see the silos as I was getting nearer and that is when I knew. Everything was reduced to a pile of nothingness. There was equipment where it used to be a running dairy farm and my aunt and uncle's house. It makes me even MORE thankful that I took the time to take those pictures for my aunt. I know she will cherish them even more, just like I cherish the copies I made for myself. In memory of what used to be, I am posting these pictures today. My heart is sad that it has finally happened. I know that is "life" but it doesn't mean I have to like it... I am glad my uncle didn't have to see this. I hate it for my aunt and cousins that are seeing it, though. It is going to be weird when I drive through there now.

I got to scrapbook today!! I didn't get as much accomplished as I had hoped, but I at least got going on the State Fair pictures that I knew would take me a while. lol I have a ton of them! I also got my Christmas pictures printed today... all 5,000 of them. :) I am hoping to be doing more tomorrow afternoon and Monday since we are off of school.

Yesterday I had something done that I have never done before! I had someone clean my house. This was a gift from one of my best friends because I had helped her with her brother's scrapbook this past summer. I must say, it was weird realizing someone else was going to come in and do what I normally do. I had everyone pick up mess and clean a little before they came because I didn't want it looking terrible. I realize that is their job, but I still didn't want it to be bad looking. ha! It was nice to come home yesterday and realize I didn't have to clean. I was going to go get my pictures developed yesterday but once I got home I just crashed. It was nice to do that. I won't be getting used to it, though, because I know that isn't going to happen as well as I want my children to understand the value of doing a job and having responsibilities. As it is now it is a daily thing we are teaching them and I want that to continue. If they make the mess they have to learn to clean it up.

Steve finally got a chance to take down our wreaths and reindeer from the front of the house. We have never let it stay up this long before. ha!! It just has been hectic or rainy around here and he hasn't had a chance to do any of that. I just figured we were just ready for Christmas again in 11 months. ha!

Today's weather was near 70 and I believe that is supposed to happen for the next couple of days and then winter should be here to stay for a while. I really hope and pray for some snow.
We've been using our wood stove as much as possible lately. I do love that thing. It is amazing how much I DON'T miss our fireplace!!! Never thought I'd say THAT!

I'm itching to take pictures but there is not much for me to take a picture of at the moment. I'll probably do a few more of the kids soon, though... hadn't done a "photo shoot" of them in a while. :)

It is now time for me to work a little more on my scrapbook pages. I hope to be finished with one section tonight. I hope you have a great day. :)

1/08/07

It is cold here...hee hee. :) Can you tell I am excited??!! Steve told me that the weather forecast for the next few weeks is to remain cold... may I just say I am glad!!! We cranked up the wood stove tonight and I am loving it. :) All we need now is some of that white stuff falling. I really pray we get some snow. I don't want fifty feet or anything, but I would like to have a memory of what the stuff looks like. ha!!

It has been a good week so far. Tonight we went to visit our Youth Pastor, Mike, in the hospital. We took the kids so they could see him and they took him the pictures they drew him. We didn't stay long and we found out he is going home tomorrow! He was originally scheduled for Thursday but they bumped it up a day. He looked quite well considering what he has been through. He talked with us a little more tonight and recognized Wesley and Mikayla when they walked in. I am still amazed at how far he has come. It is only by God's grace that he is where he is today. God has shown His power yet again and that He alone is the Great Physician. His family is going to have a different path ahead of them now that he is going home. It will not be easy and sometimes it will seem like they can't do another day of it, but God will give them the strength. I remember how God gave us what we needed to help Mom. Please continue to pray for the McCaskill's. I know God is going to continue to do great things for them.

Check out Wesley and Mikayla's lava lamp! My aunt gave it to them for Christmas and we are all enjoying it in the den. I decided to keep it in the den so Steve and I can keep a watch on it better. Those things can get quite hot and I didn't want the kids to cut it on and we not realize it. I thought my picture turned out pretty cool. :)

Wesley can now ride his bike without training wheels!! He was so proud of himself. He accomplished this on Saturday and has wanted to ride his bike everyday since. Between rain and homework he hasn't had much of a chance.

They both got report cards yesterday and are doing really well. Wesley is still having issues with the fact that he is in Kindergarten again this year. It honestly doesn't surprise me much that he is the one that is upset over it because he has always been my sensitive child. I just prayed over him last night and asked the Lord to help us help him through this. It hasn't really affected Mikayla at all. I wish he could see how far he has come this year and realize he is where he needs to be. One day he will realize it, I guess. If you think about it, please say a little prayer for him, too.

I finished grading my papers when I was waiting for Wesley and Steve to get haircuts tonight so it allowed me to have a "free" night. THAT is a nice thing. :)

Well, I am a bit weary tonight so I am going to go read in front of the fire for a bit before heading off to bed. I need to enjoy that warmth as much as possible. :) Have a good day everyone!

1/2/07

Back to work for me today!! It wasn't too bad but it was a bit hard to get up this morning. :)

I think a new year's resolution for me is to lose some weight. HA!!! I am finding that I am dealing with a battle I never experienced before. I use to eat all I wanted and not gain a thing. Now I just look at something and I put on weight. :) I need to start exercising but have no idea when I am going to fit that in. Maybe I could grade papers and do aerobics at the same time??? Honestly, though, I do want to do better with that.

Today's picture is of that sunset I was telling you about yesterday. I thought the pink in the sky was so lovely.

Well, papers call my name yet again. Have a wonderful evening and enjoy the excitement of the new year. :)

1/01/07

Wow, 2007...doesn't seem much different than 2006 but it will probably take me a while to stop writing 2006. ha!

Today was filled with doing not much of anything. I actually got to do a bit of scrapbooking. However, I am so far "behind" for ME that I was a bit overwhelmed. I got a few pages done, though. I just take so many pictures!! ha!!!

Today's pictures are of Wesley and Mikayla's big gifts for Christmas. Mikayla's is her American Girl doll carriage and horse Penny. Wesley got new John Deere bedding for his room as well as those collectible tractors and truck he has on his bed. He was pretty tickled with those. :)

I can't believe my vacation is over. I guess it is "back to the grind" tomorrow. Actually, I guess I shouldn't complain... I do have the ability to work and am healthy. I guess I am just not ready for the craziness to start all over again.

We saw a beautiful sunset tonight. I took pictures and will share those later. Enjoy the beginning of a new year. God has blessed us with another day!