Well would you look at that!

I've been Tagged! By my good friend who moved far far away, Lisa! I sort of had to beg for the tag, but I refused to list 5 random things about myself without first being tagged. So now I am tagged.

1. I've had my dream car. It was a 1975 Gold, Super Beetle. Had it before I got married. We
drove off in it to start our new life together in Georgia. Actually there was a tiny problem
with the starter so everytime we stopped for gas we had to push start it. Rather amusing to
see the newlyweds with the big JUST MARRIED on the back window push starting their car.
now my dream car is this! I know, I know it's a woody, but it sure is smooth. Can't afford to put gas in
it now, but someday, maybe when I'm retired and am doing a lot of camping. LOL

2. Last time I TP'd someone's house was only 5 years ago, I was 31, and it was my mothers house. My best friend and I took our husbands and our children to help. Yes I took picture and scrapped a page about it. Hee Hee.....

3. My wedding reception was the last one they had at a local retirement community because it was too wild, and the police were called.

4. I was once chased by a whole herd of cattle. Wearing brand new red leather Nike's.

5. I wish I was a missionary living in some remote land, instead of having my brain sucked out through my ear working for a life insurance company.

Ok there's 5 random things now all you people who secretly stalk me, and read my blog regularly leave a comment along with 5 random things. and now I shall tag...............the ever so talented, and way too busy to kick it with me............STACIE.......!

Weekend Madness!

I did some mail art finally on Friday night. Although I did not scan it before I put it in the envelope. Sorry hopefully the recipient will scan and then I'll post. We actually ate dinner at home on friday night. Very rare, we are usually off and running on Friday. Saturday I hooked up with my Alpha coach in the AM so excited to get back into Alpha! Then I hooked up with Weezer and Abby and we went and had some beers at the Hoffbrauhaus. I say beers as if we were doing some major drinking. Yeah right. We each had just samples of each beer which was about equal to one whole beer. Woohoo....big drinkers! We did however eat like we'd never eat again and we were trying to kill ourselves on as much fried food and sweets as we could consume! We started with Pretzels and Beer cheese, and some fried pickles. Insanity. Well that was so good we thought, why get a meal why not get some more appetizers? Yeah 2 sampler platters later we felt like one of thoe big fat german fellows who looks like he's got some serious GAS! So we thought why not finish this food extravaganza with a ginormous cream puff? We inhaled the first one, then Weezer and I were bummed we didn't have coffee, so we had ANOTHER CREAM PUFF, so we could have some coffee. Good Lord, you can only do that kind of eating once or twice a year. BARF! And me with no Camera, go figure.

Why on earth was the VMA's just non-stop hip hop? Ever heard of good old fashion Rock and Roll people, it's good music and it makes sense and those guys don't look like idiots on stage. Enough with Puff Daddy and Snoop, WE WANT MORE COLD PLAY AND THE KILLERS! At least I do anyways!

Truly a Blessing

So I go to Krogers to pick up some items so it appears that I have food in my house, and aren't compelled to frequent the local fast food establishment. Not to mention I needed to purchase some lysol wipes for Perry's 2nd grade teacher. That's the post it he chose. She's in for a treat I bought the super jumbo size, she should be good until Christmas. As I am placing my groceries into my trunk I pick up a bag of 2 very nice looking ribeye steaks, funny I don't recall spending 17 dollars on 2 ginormous steaks, and hamburgers. Hummm...check receipt, nope didn't pay for them either although they are in my possession. Place them in the trunk and start to close it. Devil on one shoulder, angel on the other. "It's their fault, they gave them to you.", "But I didn't pay for them, someone must have left them, they might be their dinner tonight.", "Maybe they are giving away steaks and hamburgers with each order this evening." Glance over at my oblivious, impressionable child, whose humming some song from Osmosis Jones. And think, yeah I should take these back in. So I do, tell the inappreciative women behind the service deck, "unless you are giving away steaks tonight these ain't mine." She says huh...Someone's gonna be mad, I said well I didn't pay for them so here ya go, waiting for a thanks for being honest, or something......silence.....Hummmm, should have kept the damn things dang. Yeah my conscience would have got the best of me. Speaking of the impressionable child. First day of school went rather smooth. He began the dressing process on his own, just as I had hoped. He woke before the chirping bird alarm, and was naked by the time it went off and I got up. Reminder #1 to get dressed occurred just before I showered. After shower, he had his shorts on. Reminder #2, I get dressed. He now has on some socks. Reminder #3, I go make oatmeal, he's got on his t-shirt, just before I lost it at reminder #4 I grabbed his button up shirt, and shoes and finished the process that should never take 30 minutes! We'll get this process down soon I promise. Fortunately for him he's so dang sweet and cute, you can't hurt him, you just wanna squeeze him and kiss him! Last night after meet the teacher night he was saying his prayers. And the end he blesses folks. So I said "who do you wanna bless?" he thinks....."who are you thinking about for tomorrow?" Thinking he'll say his second grade teacher, nope, he says "I think I'd like to bless the little girl in my class in the wheel chair, what's her name Mommy?".....Elizabeth....."God bless Elizabeth, and God bless Mrs. Emenaker (his first grade teacher), I'm sure gonna miss her." He eventually got around to blessing his 2nd grade teacher too, but he had to cover who was on his mind first. He's definitely a heart toucher. He loves to wave at random folks, it's almost as if he knows who needs a cute wave from a friendly little boy. When we were getting in our car tonight, our car was next to a women's who was sitting in her car waiting apparently for someone. She had that "a lot on her mind" look. Perry crawls over from his side of the back seat to the other to wave to her and smile. You could tell she was touched. And as we are pooling away he looks up smiles and waves again and yells bye! It's indescibable what he does to people but it's very simple, and touching, not just some goofy kid trying to get a reaction he genuinely wants to touch folks. We are truly blessed!

Truly a Puzzle

Nemo Cellphone: $5.00

Shirt from Jc Penny's: 2 for 14

size 2 shorts form Steve and

Berry's (sized wierd): $5.00

Brand new size 13 Sketchers:

Way too much!

Gap hat: 2.50

Starwars Underwear: 6.99 3pack

Playing back to school dress-up

with a reluctant 8 year old.......

PRICELESS

And along with the Spirit,a voice:"This is my Son,chosen and
marked by my love,delight of my life."
Matthew 3:17 (Message Bible)
Wow you people are good! No crazy acronyms and I was in no way intimidated. (I think IEP was used, but ha ha I know that one!) Either I got the hang of this, or it was a God thing probably a combination of both! The good news is (well it is for me) he qualifies for special ed. I guess this would not be good news to some parents, but it's good news if it means Perry will get the extra help he needs to learn. I doubt he'll be scarred for life, he's excited he gets to be in 2 classrooms instead of 1, and have more than one teacher. It's all in the presentation. Goal right now is to convince him that he's smart. Right now he'll tell you that he's not smart, no matter how many times I try to convince him that he is smart. It breaks my heart to hear him say that outloud. Because I know he's smart, but someone has told him otherwise. (don't let me find you!) Perry is definately a puzzle, very difficult to figure out what works for him, you can tell he's learning but to figure out how it's getting in there is exhausting, he can't be tested like other kids, he just won't sit for it. And his attention span is about 2 seconds on a good day possibly 5 seconds. Thanks for all your prayers, it totally worked. I'll add you to the list of people Perry should thank when he's a rich and famous artist!

Larryboy

larryboy
Originally uploaded by Yoda0419.

If you click on Larryboy, it'll take you to more Perry Artwork. Some folks at school were asking to see his artwork so I scanned some in to Flikr. There photo's there of summer camp also if anyones interested. Warning theres a lot of pictures.

Start Your Prayer engines!

Ok the first of probably many intervention meetings happens tomorrow. This is when a parent of a child goes to a meeting at the school that will involve, last years teacher, this years teacher, a reading teacher, an assistant principle, school psychologist, speech teacher (I think she's there for communication reasons, not speech), and this year we are throwing in a special ed teacher. And for added kicks I am taking a very reluctant husband. Granted he'll be there for looks alone, because I promise you, he will contribute NOTHING to the conversation. Unless Mr. Martin (school principle) shows up he'll be the only man in the room. Perry gets his reluctentness to try new things from you guessed it dear old dad. I envision him as a child being drug to new things not wanting to budge much like Mr. Perry. But I informed him he must attend this first meeting to see what I go through and to appreciate my parenting skills. Nuff said. He'll survive.

By the end of last year these meeting got increasingly intimidating. I had not yet learned to speak up for myself, like "hey that acronym you just used, what the hell does it mean??" I can't say that I have learned now, but I feel more confident in my right as a parent, I've done a little reading. Doesn't change the fact that the school people talk school talk, and Hello....I barely know Life Insurance talk after 12 years, now I gotta learn a whole new lingo! So everyone get into prayer mode, pray for no more additional mind altering medications, a nice little IEP in place with some help from the special ed department. (notice the acronym, I'm practicing!) and a happy school loving kid. If all this happens, nobody will get hurt! Get praying people!


Oh and heres the kid you'll be praying for! Cute photo I cropped out of a group shot, cause he looked cute. He's sitting quitely and being quiet. Very odd moment. But I love the flushed cheeks and the sweaty hair. We went to the Loveland Castle with the Cub Scouts. Most of the boys stayed the night, we did not. Wasn't down with sleeping outside a haunted castle by myself in a tent. Ron was away for the weekend. It was fun to hang out and explore till late at night. Very cool!

CUTE!

Dangit Shelley I'm gonna be late for church, and it's all your fault had to get this up on the blog....this is dang cute. And NO it does not make me want another one! Look how cute this baby is!

What's the Time?

I'm sorry what's that? Oh.....YES I KNOW IT'S ALMOST 3 AM.....GET OVER IT PEOPLE. I think one of my problems with going to bed at a reasonable hour, is I had a strict bedtime as a kid, and since I am now an adult....ha ha....you can't make me. Yeah I pay for that often. I told you I have issues. But the important thing is I got to scrap. I could feasably scrap at home, heck it's obvious by my surroundings I am not cleaning my house. But I always feel guilty, (and I ain't even catholic) that I should be spending time with my family. Watching a movie with my husband or playing with Perry. I rarely watch a movie with my husband at home, the man refuses to watch anything I like. We did however watch The Terminal last weekend. Ron got suckered into watching it cause Tom Hanks is in it, and ever since Saving Private Ryan he's go great respect for the man. So ha ha....sucker you watched a love story! I think he even got a little misty! It's a great movie, I highly recommend it. I am a scrappin fool. Here's what I've scrapped lately. I love this page, it was inspired by a page in Designing with stamps I believe. But the pictures and the memories are so fun. Perry has such an imagination. The kid literally does not need toys. He can make a toy out of anything. I think we buy toys more for ourselves than him, because we like them. Life the little Star Wars Galactic heroes, we bought another set, Perry didn't really ask for them, we just got them cause they are so dang cute. Little chunky Star Wars figures, he's almost too old for them but they are so dang cute! He'll play with them for a moment and then go draw something and cut it out and play with it. Why do we buy this kid toys?????

Crazy...maybe!

Why is it I don't feel like doing anything until midnight. All the sudden I have all this energy like I got all the time in the world and I don't have to get up at like 6:30 am, realistically that is what time I should get up and get moving. But it rarely if ever happens. Little experiment going on here. Perry has a new alarm clock, it has sounds to fall to sleep to, and the past 2 night he's been falling asleep to the sounds of the ocean. Hummm....good then I don't have to hear disney tunes, or veggie tunes as he falls asleep, and oddly it's worked he's stayed in bed, must be soothing. Then the alarm clock has waking up options also. A buzzer, Birds, and a rooster. He doesn't get up to birds, he just listens to them, but the rooster however has another effect, I heard the rooster going off so went to see what his response was cause it wasn't getting turned off.....he was curlled up with his hands over his ears real tight. LOL.....yeah he wasn't digging the rooster. So next week we add the pressure of getting dressed immediately after the alarm goes off to prepare him for school which starts on wednesday....yippee....lots of good school news already. God seems to be listening too me. His teacher is someone my mom has known for many years from church. And he's not changing rooms, he'll be in the same classroom he was in last year. So theres not the added stress of finding his class he already knows where it is. Awesome. Our first intervention meeting is Monday, and a special ed teacher is scheduled to be there so that sounds promising. Truth is, I am praying he gets the help he needs, I know his little brain can handle and learn the stuff they are throwing at him, he just needs to learn to focus and take in all they throw at him. Come out of the world of Perry and be present mentally at school just for those 6 hours, and hopefully he won't have a ton of homework and he can go back to Perryland while he's at home. Heres to a less stressful, less work for me at home school year.

Video: Nickel Creek~ This Side
Love this song, love this group. This was one of my all time favorite concerts. Ron and I went and had Perry with us. We rode down to tall stacks with Perry on the Metro, just to see them. Perry fell asleep and Ron just carried him around, we laid on the grass by the river listening to them, then went and got right in the middle of the crowd durring a really fun song, Ron carrying a sleeping kid and me dancing around. So fun! If you don't know them you should check them out, a really great band!

Rubber is mounted and Cut!

It's all done, there was a lot of it too. Man once I get started I can't stop. But there is no unmounted rubber in my house, unless it belongs to someone else. LOL....Haven't had a chance to play with any of my new supplies yet, but I will this week I promise.

Dave had another great message at church again this week. This whole relationship series all summer has been great, we actually apply what's said in church to our lives almost weekly. Ron seems to be doing the same thing also which is huge. Normally he snoozes right through church. This morning though.....:::::over crowded church rant::::::we ran a tiny bit late, and good Lord what the heck happened, word must have got out that Dave would be talking about "what women want men to know about them" or something cause it was so freakin crowded. Granted I know I go to a mega church and this should be expected, but dang, drop P off to his class, head upstairs to grab some coffee and get in my seat........NO COFFEE........should have been my first clue, head into the auditorium, and good grief....no seats within eye sight.....knew if I found a random seat Ron wouldn't find me in a million years. So waited by the door. Waited and waited some more. Man I hate that screws up my whole worship experience. He finally shows up, and we make the hike to the nose bleeds......just like in any church, the folks in the back don't sing, at all. And at my church that's where the parents with the bad kids go thinking folks who sit in the back aren't there to actually experience church, they really came just to sit and listen to screaming kids for an hour. I am glad they came, and hope they got something from the message, but HELLO there's childcare not to mention a family room, not to mention an atrium with tons of monitors, so your kids could go buckwild while you enjoy the message and not disturb anyone else. In between the screaming kids, I was able to take home a little something for this week. Interesting point Anita (Daves wife, he interviewed her) made, was she and Dave made a promise to not discuss the other persons families mental state. It's hurtful, and unnessesary. I know my families crazy, and don't need to be informed as such. Same goes for Ron. I made mention of that point to Ron later, so hopefully we'll make strides in that area, which #1 will strengthen our relationship, and #2 quite possibly Lord willing....will break the crazy cycle.

LOTS AND LOTS OF RUBBER!

This represents my day from 8am to 4:30 pm today. The sea of pink at the bottom of the picture also represents hours of cutting rubber and mounting it on EZ mount. It also represents ALOT of money. However if you consider for a moment if that there rubber was mounted on wood.....I'd have to take a second mortgage......shhhh......I am experiencing a rubber high. Connie was new to the whole thing, and it was fun to have her along since she also can't say no to a good piece of rubber or super cool embellishment. The ATC cards were a big hit, however there are alot of ladies who do still make the pins. (not a big fan of the pins people!) Another few years they'll catch on. ATC's are so much easier. I've done the pins and the magnets to trade, and they represent days of stamping. ATC's represent days as well but you can get a lot more done in a short amount of time. Ok again, promise not to ever talk about the weather on my blog exception to this rule is when it's unreasonably HOT! Or unreasonably cold, and todayGOOD LORD IT'S FREAKIN HOT! What better place to be than an over crowded convention center full of rubber on a hot day like this. It did get a bit warm at the convention but for the most part it was comfortable. Perry ran through the sprinkler when I got home. I absolutely love water pictures. Stay cool people it's freakin hot out there. Sorry but love the Ladies....the video's a little freaky, but a fun song!

PS Missed you Stacie! Connie split a grab bag with me. It was fun but still missed ya! Next year friend!!!!

One of these Days..........

Man I look forward to that day when all the troubles of life will pass away, and I get to see my Savior face to face.....ever think about it? Don't get me wrong I love my life. There are moments I can do without, like argueing with my scatterbrained child who is at an age where he'd rather do whatever he wants than to listen to me and do what he's told, or just follow simple 2 step instructions seem to be impossible for his mind to grasp because he's too busy obsessing with whatever is going on in his head. When the evening ends with us arguing and me being mad at him because he just will NOT go to bed, I still look forward to waking him up in the morning by crawling into his bed and snuggling with him, kissing his sweet soft cheek, then tickling him gently awake, as he giggles and stretches. He frustrates me beyond belief, but it's worth every minute. God gave him to me and I'm gonna do the best I can with what I know, and hopefully if I'm doing something right he too will look forward to the day he gets to see his Savior face to face. My challenge to you is to take 5-10 minutes today and spend it alone with God, I promise you, you won't be sorry.

Off in ATC land....

Just wanted to update the video. Used to love 10,000 Maniacs, Natalie Merchants voice is just the bomb. Back in the day I wanted to be her, loved her voice, her dance and her hair.

Small Canvas...

I am convinced I am an artist. Not educated as such but aspiring to be as such. Be nice to get paid to play like this all day everyday!

LET THE MADNESS BEGIN!
Well here we go, time to make some ATC's for Stampaway. I started this last year. I used to make pins, and little magnets, but now I think ATC's will be more trendy this year. So excited. None of my friends do the trading, I got a newbie to do it last year, you get some fun stuff back. I hope to get lots more ATC's this year!

Um yeah...it's August!

Holy crap the summers almost over. I think I've made stampaway my last big to do of the summer every year for the past couple years. It's good to have a little rubber retail therapy just before school starts. I guess last year was an indication that Hey Jodi, school is just going to be stressful for you. I wish I could find a way for it to not be stressful. I wish P and I could just sit down at night and just happily do homework in like say 20-30 minutes. Or if he could just get ur done before I even get home and it's correct, man.......BOY THAT IS DREAMLAND! Truth is, I did not do as much review as I wanted this summer, I didn't do half as much, and I feel like I am a complete failure, and the teachers that worked so hard to get him where he was before summer will hate me. But geez isn't that what summer is for to relax already, you should have seen what I had to go through just to get him to do a few pages in his summer workbook, and read a little a couple times a week. NIGHTMARE!

I dedicate todays video, to hope for a nonstressful school year, an understanding teacher, assistance for P at school, less homework, did I mention an understanding teacher? Ok God hook a sister up!

Oh in other news. Stacie is starting to schedule appointments for her childs testing process at childrens, and she started her process maybe a month before me so that means we should be scheduling soon. Man that will be a great relief. To finally see if we are dealing with anything other than ADHD and get some added aid in making life easier.

TBN....

Don't ask me why I was watching TBN last night, but I was. Channel surfing. There was the blonde chic, I've seen her before, she's got a very evangelistic way of preaching, kind of a yeller, but very good at what she does. Kirk Franklin was on there, he likes to get loud too...there was some other bishops there as well, rather interesting. Something they said that was very true.....She said "Faith graduates to trust." Very interesting, you can not trust if you don't have faith. Not to mention without faith it's impossible to agree with God. Very true, I find that when I am doubting God, it's when my faith is the weakest. Very hard to trust what you do not believe.

I found that to be rather profound. Missed church last weekend, first time all summer really since June anyways. Am really feeling disconnected this week. But the good thing is Alpha starts next month so then I'll feel like I am doing something to advance the kingdom. Although, I feel I help to advance the kingdom in my everyday life just the way I live or at least try to live anyways. "Advance the kingdom", who says that anyways? Did I just make that up? Where the heck did it come from? Not sure how else to put it, maybe sharing God's love in a practical way? Geez as if that's not been said before! LOL......Oh well it's who I am, and it's what I do Anyways Psalms 35 is a good one for this topic. Oh yeah and the video.....geez sure makes you appreciate you life don't it? Makes me want to hop a plane, and head off into the field to love some folks in another land. Someday people, that'll be me I promise. I just hope the works not done by the time I am able. I am sure Jesus will hold off showing up till I get a chance to show some love in a foreign land he knows I want to. That don't mean you all should just go buck wild cause Jesus ain't coming back soon, you still need to be livin' right.

So Sorry!

I know the millions of blurkers are straight trippin I haven't posted in days. I've been a giant loser for days actually. I have so many projects just waiting for my creative juices, and what have I done all week nothing! I scrapped last weekend, with some peeps, had breakfast with Connie at the Original Pancake House.....the bomb! I was soooo tired Saturday from staying up late and preplanning pages friday night, I had to have an energy drink Saturday evening. It seemed to work, I picked it up on the way back to Archivers from Maddie's Party. Had to break from Scrappin to celebrate Maddie's 5th birthday. Can't believe she's 5 already! It was a Mexican Fiesta, thus the ginormous Sambraro, how the heck do you spell that word anyways? We had a lovely time, with all the mexican fixens. Those Mexicans know what they are doing when it comes to food. The real stuff will kill ya, trust me 10 days in Mexico will make you appreciate the american made Mexican food. Those folks in Mexico, don't know how to season the stuff right, and for God sake people put the milk in the fridge will ya! Gross! The big Stampaway is next weekend, can't wait. Gonna try and limit myself again. I'll be with some folks who actually stick to a budget so maybe they'll be a good influence on me.....NOT! I love Rubber and have to not limit myself. Nuff said! Love the new Video, that new Album of hers is awesome. I've had it for a while and listen to it all the time.