Am I ready for this?

Ok daycamp was just practice tomorrow morning we leave for the real deal.
4 days away from home camping in a Fort! He's practiced getting dressed on his own without being reminded 100 times. He's practiced bathing himself, trying not to have to remind him to wash all of his hair. I got him special chocolate shampoo, to make hair washing fun. He's had a million questions.

Perry: "Mommy will you be there with me?"
Mommy: "Yes honey I'll be at camp, I may not be right beside you the whole time, but I won't be far away."
Perry: "Mommy, will you be sleeping in the same room as me?"
Mommy: "No, honey Mommy's can't sleep in the same room as the kids, but I'll be one room away."
Perry: "Mommy, what if I have to poop, can I take my gameboy"
"I'll take a magazine."
Mommy: "ok, make sure it's one of my magazines"
Mommy: "Do you think they'll mind if I smuggle in my IPOD?"
~I'm willing to take that chance.....LOL

Dude can dance.

Sometimes you just gotta work it! I just know one of these days my husbands going to do this to me! Trying to catch up on stuff before me and Perry take off to camp. I am sure I'll have lots of fun stuff to talk about and fun pictures to post after camp. If you don't have the address and you wanna send us some camp mail love e-mail me and I'll hook you up with the address. You'd have to send it this weekend.

Hide and Seek anyone? They play so cute together!  

Can't believe she's 12....where did the time go? She's a great kid at 12, a lot like her Aunt Jodi in many ways, and a lot like her Mom in many ways....both could be for the good or bad. LOL.....Love you Ashton! 

This is the hill we, yes we meaning the middle aged women and the children climbed up on our quest for a geochache. This was from the way back, and we had them climb up without us to show how steep this freakin hill was! 

Couple of middle aged women. This was at mile marker 4 I believe. I will say I do look slimmer than last summer.

Conversation while hiking....

Aunt Jodi: Hey Ashton how's my butt look, (she's hiking behind me.) and be nice!

Ashton: Ummm.....

Aunt Jodi: Ahhh come on, you gotta have something kind to say. I know it's big, but what do you think.

Ashton: It looks like it should look for a women your age.

Aunt Jodi: Good answer, sorry Layni (Ashton's Mom) next year when you 36 your butts going to blow up!

Maddie and Ashton...cute! 

oh looks like I'll have to post them one at a time....I get it! 

I uploaded several pics. Not sure how it will handle it. We camped this weekend. Theres nothing I love more in life than a nice weekend of rainfree camping. We think the curse of Harold the "rainking" has been broken. No rain at all this weekend. And seriously since we've been camping together for 5 years, it's rained everytime. Except the times Harold wasn't with us. We hiked our booty's off, Layni, Maddie, Ashton and I.  

What the?

I know, I know it's way late. But holy crap have you seen Wendi's new stamps??? How do these people create such cool stuff? Do they think we are rich? I want all of them but lets be realistic, I'd have to not buy groceries or something. These talented folks out there making this super cool rubber.....stop give a girl a break would ya!

God Knows.....

Ever feel overwhelmed with responsibility? Me....right now! And it's not really anything huge, just feel like it's all me. Adult BS, I guess. Not even PMSing or anything, just overwhelmed with life in general I think. Feel like theres not enough time to do the things I enjoy, like hanging out with my friends, being a small group leader, playing with my kid, doing artwork, spending time with my husband, ect.....sure theres enough time to do maybe 1 or 2 of those but not all of them. And then add in the stuff you'd also like to be doing such as mission work, reading more, more church stuff, going on trips, volunteer for cubscout stuff, volunteer for school stuff......not enough time. I've not been a small group leader for like 2 years now, and I've missed the connection with people alot. Sure I still connect upon occasion but it's more unplanned, and spuratic. So past couple weeks I've felt a bit out of touch, just a little empty. I skipped church last week, which had a lot to do with it. So went this sunday, it was like God was there waiting for me, as if he knew exactly what I needed. I am not a touchy feely type person, I will gladly take a hug if you come at me with it, but I am in no way shape or form a hug initiator. Just to clear that up, incase there were some questions. But first person I see as soon as I get out of my car, is my former small group co-leader and her cute little family. She's just one of those people, who you know is completely genuine. When she says "I've been thinking about you", you know she really has, and she's genuinely happy to see you. Love that! She doesn't even have to say she's been thinking about you, you can tell when she looks at you. Not a lot of people like that in the world if you know someone like that appreciate them. So then the message......wasn't even an in your face type message it was just what I needed. Full version here. Here are the points, it was on the story of the women at the well John 4:7-30

God knows we're outsiders
God knows we don't know who he is.
God knows what we could be.
God knows all our failures.
God knows our religion is never enough
God knows we'll be inviters when we know him.

"I read in a periodical the other day that the fundamental thing is how we think of God. By God Himself, it is not. How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important." ~ CS Lewis

Sometimes we just need someone to be there and desire nothing in return.

Got Flippies?

Ok whatever I got problems!
What's wrong with this picture? Also pick your favorite, and if it's the same as mine, maybe I'll send you a little something.
I think I need some yellow ones don't you?

Mail Love!

Heres some mail art. I sent it to a complete stranger. Hopefully I'll make some new pen pals, haven't had a pen pal in years. The internet has taken away the joy of letter writing, and now with my discovery of mail art theres no stopping me. Before e-mail, I'd write letters all the time. And received quite a few as well. That's your official assignment, if you are reading this, send somebody some mail love! Mail Art has been so much fun. I've only got 2 peices of mail but they were both fun and from another state. I sent out 9 pieces of love in the past 2 days. Fun Fun Fun!

Bleh.....

That's just what I'm feeling. Not sure why? Perry's been kind of blah since friday, and can't get him to eat much, which frustrates me.

Ron (my husband) is so not a joiner. Theres tons of stuff I'd like to do, but doing things alone or just with the kid sucks after a while. Wow nothing inspirational here...better move on.....skipped church this morning too. Better go read Wendi's blog, she's got ALOT more meaningful stuff to read today.

I found a new blog to stalk, Wendi, really great stuff going on there. I am making all sorts of cool friends. Gotta love blogland! Great quote she had on there I am gonna have to steal and put it here only bigger!


"Quit telling your God how big your mountain is, and start telling your mountain how big your God is."


man I so did that with Perry and school stuff the past couple weeks. At first I was like I can't do this, this is way too big for little ole unassertive me, and then I was like wait this is my kid.....don't mess with my kid, said a PRAYERand said BRING IT!

I is for I think I found a new love.........

I am so in love with music right now. Trust me an Ipod will save you from cube hell. And the music right there in you ear buds, all up in your head it's like your own personal concert right in your cube. Love IT! Check out the new love, of which will be my next whole album download. Five for Fighting. Click on music and listen to "If God Made You".......man great cube crying song. Heres the words.

If God Made You
"Hey Kid… Your time has come to changeThough I need you more than I’ve needed anyone in any way tonightHey Kid… I know it won’t be longThe Captain’s calling…come to see you back where we belong
Something inside me is breakingSomething inside says there’s somewhere better than this…
Sunset sailing on April skiesBloodshot fire clouds in her eyesI can’t say what I might believeBut if God made you he’s in love with me
Hey Kid…Do wishes count at allCan you give me a sign…give me anything I won’t tell a soul you toldHey Kid…Will you hold me when I sleepWill you find me when the tide decides that I got to leave
Something inside me is breakingSomething inside says there’s somewhere better than this…
Sunset sailing on April skiesBloodshot fire clouds in her eyesI can’t say what I might believeBut if God made you he’s in love with me
Sunset sailing on April skiesBloodshot fire clouds in your eyesI can’t say what I might believeBut if God made you he’s in love with me
Something inside me is breakingSomething inside says there’s somewhere better than this my love
Sunset sailing on April skiesBloodshot fire clouds in her eyesI can’t say what I might believeBut if God made you he’s in love with me
Sunset sailing on April skiesBloodshot fire clouds in your eyesI can’t say what I might believeBut if God made you… he’s in love with me…"

Sorry it pasted all wierd.

They sound so lovely, where has this group been all my life?

I is for Major Ink Action......

That's whats going on here. I'm taking a mail art class, and I went ink crazy on some postcards. Totally fun. That was the first assignment. I'd post one here but I seriously don't feel like scanning it, not sure if I will before I send it off. My second assignment had specific instructions to restructure some junk mail, it's done, but I don't think it's all that great. Who ever gets it will find it to be a work of art I am sure. 2 more days of school.......THANK GOD! Except now to maintain some sort of structure for Mr. P for the summer, so he doesn't have a hard time transitioning when school starts in the fall. I am such a disorganized person, it's hard, and odd that my child has ADD, God truly has a sense of humor. So I plan to do one big fun thing each month. June is cubscout camp....Lord help me.....I am going, those boys will wear my fat arse out! July I think he'll do daycamp, and then August we get to spend the night in the Loveland Castle.......yippee.....it will be SPOOKY can't wait! The castle should be great fun.

I is for Interesting 8 year old......

Am I even on I? I think I've lost track.

Ah yes, he's 8 years old. His actual birthday was last thursday but we always celebrate it this weekend. He had a star wars birthday party. Then Ron and I topped it off and went and saw the new Star Wars. Thoughts on the new Star Wars? I couldn't put my finger on it, what didn't I like about it? I mean I love all the stuff going on, and Yoda, he's the bomb! When I got to my brothers house afterwards to get Perry, he said..."isn't the dude who plays Anikan a terrible actor? BINGO....that's what I didn't like. He's a bad actor and makes all the other folks who are great actors, look bad. Glad he's Darth Vader now, since you don't have to see his face anymore when he does the bad acting. Him becoming Darth Vader was way cool. Nice that everything comes together now.

JUST ONE OF THOSE DAYS!

VERY stressful day to say the least. Not even worth repeating! Lets just say a whole lot of Limp Bizkit got listened to this afternoon to help me through my day. It's not work people it's life. You're probably thinking whats a nice girl like me doing listening to Limp Bizkit? Sometimes you just gotta yell, say bullshit, and the F word a whole lot. And Limp Bizkit can help you do that. That's all I'm saying. Good Night

I is for I forgot to mention.

See back on track already! Wanted to mention my latest blog I enjoy reading....it's funny funny stuff! Laid-Off Dad.

Bathroom Bandit!

This one's totally for the scrapbook. I may need to take a picture of the school bathroom if I'd like a photo to reinact it, or it may just be a page in his small book about ADD. 2 weeks left in school, almost made it the whole year with a clean record. Other than the wrong bus incident one day, he's been good all year. As if my week with meeting with the intervention team, psychiatrist, and the child psychologist wasn't stressful enough, he comes home with a detention slip. I was devastated! Just my initial reaction if soon wore off. Confronted the child, the child who rarely cares what people think about him, didn't want to talk about it, and his reasoning? I might tell his teacher and she'd think he was a bad kid. Um....hello she's the one who wrote you up dude. Not sure what he was getting at, but he wasn't talking. The detention slip said for crawling under the bathroom stalls. Which seemed fairly amusing to me but 2 days lunch and recess detention for a first time offender seemed a bit much. So I had to talk to his teacher anyways regarding end of the year stuff, so I got to ask her over the phone. I got the whole crazy story.

BATHROOM BANDIT!
Big conspiracy going on at West Elementary. For several days someone had been going into the bathroom stall locking the door, then crawling out under the stall. Announcement made over the PA system through the whole school. "Whoever you are cut it out", and "if you see the perpetrator, please tell a teacher." Friday Mr. Perry goes into the bathroom to do his business, or maybe not even to do his busniness maybe to cause a little mischief, goes into the stall, 3rd grade student walks into the bathroom, sees Perry's little head crawling out from under the stall.....Being the school rule abiding 3rd grader he was contacted the nearest teacher, who busted the bathroom bandit, which so happened to be my kid. So he's on lock down for yesterdays lunch/recess, and tomorrow. Hummm....did he act alone? Was their a reward? Will this be on his perminent record?

Not to worry people , I did not make light of the situation in front of the child. To him it was serious offense, and not likely to do it ever again. But away from the kid, that right there is some dang funny stuff. Poor thing, he said after his shower tonight. {after shower time is good talking and singing time} He said "Mommy I'm 8 years old now, am I gonna get any taller? Everyone is taller than me." I told him "yeah you'll get taller eventually maybe when your in 2nd grade. " Good heavens I think I just lied to my kid. I mean I'm only 5'4" and my husband is only 5'6" so it's quite possible the kids not going to be a tall person. Unless he takes after my side of the family, my brother and uncles are tall. But I doubt Perry will be tall. I promise to get back to my alphabet listings, I had to share the latest Perry antics. Never a dull moment.

I got to scrap today. I did 5 pages and this one is my favorite, it's got the lyrics to that wonderful Sarah Mclachlan song Answer. It REALLY spoke to me this week. This page turned out great. It was good to get to scrap with my peeps all day today.  

H is for Honesty........

Thats what my blogs for. Keeping it real. This is my life, and I got nothing to hide. Hopefully somewhere along the way I'll say something that means something to someone else. Or helps them along their journey. This has been a busy busy thought provoking week. Wednesdays bible study was on the major profits, Isaiah, Ezekial, Sammuel, and Jeremiah. Man if those folks were around today, making the predictions they made....holy cow, they'd be complete wackos. Reading Isaiah, and some of the prophecies that are about Jesus, and are right on target, wow that's some good stuff.

Dealing with schools, psychologist, pediatricians, childrens hospital......is no joke people, makes you grow up real quick. I have never had an assertive personality, but the minute I think my kids not getting the best he can get, wow I become a women with power. And I start making phone calls and sending e-mails to get to the bottom of things, amazingly it works and you get answers! Who knew? Perry met with the child psychologist this morning. Truely, God was all up in the mix. I prayed briefly before I got there, that he would be a christian. Not a christian psychologist practicing in a christian practice, but a mainstream psychologist that just so happens to be a christian. Big difference, the other can be a bit too churchy, and have a hard time getting to the scientific stuff that causes whatevers going on, I feel you need that and it gives you the bigger picture. Bingo.....one of the first things he asked us what if we went to church. And he knew of the Vineyard, as a matter of fact he attends Clovernook Christian which is where a lot of Vineyard folks leave and go there and visa versa....he's gone there for 30 years. How cool is that? May not mean alot to some folks, but if someone can understand what makes me tick and how I am raising my kid to begin with because my spiritual life plays such a huge part in everything in my life, that makes a world of difference.

Thanks so much for the great support I have gotten from the 2 people who can admit they read my blog, your comments mean a lot. I have become aware of a few fans who are addicts of my blog......I know who you are, and how about some love every once in a while! Ha Ha just kidding silent lurking is perfectly acceptable. I am sure there are many who do that.

How cute is this face? God truely has given me more than I asked for. Tonight he had a monster of a headache when I got home so I prayed for his little head. "Dear Jesus make Perry's headache go away." So when we got home from his birthday dinner his headache was gone, and mine was hurting, so I asked him to kiss my head....and he said "Dear Jesus make mommy's headache go away...amen." I love you mommy and kissed my head. That right there is the "voice of truth" in a rather stressful day. 

H is for HELP!

Ok so maybe I asked for a kid that was slightly different. Maybe I said to myself or God, hey it'd be cool to have a kid that wasn't your average, "everyone's got one" kind of kid. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU PRAY FOR. That's always well and good until they have to adjust to real life. Or the life that your average kid can adjust to easily. From what I gathered from the intervention meeting at Perry's school today, yes they are going to send him on to 2nd grade, with some additional help. Something called and IEP, Individual Education Plan, which is more help (I hope) than what he got this year. This year we honestly had no idea what we were dealing with. We thought, ok so the kids got ADD or ADHD, give him some meds we'll turn a passing kid into an honor roll student, at least thats what I heard can happen. Not so much the case with Perry, We have done 4 different meds, 3 of which he's on all together now. None of them have helped really. There were signs of improved focus for maybe a few days then, whatevers going on inside of him, laughed basically at the meds, and this demon if you will said I am much stronger and I'll be the winner. Whoa.....looking at it that way makes it sound scary but it makes sense. Again the initial request for a different child, bad idea. He's not even your average ADHD kid! He's a horse of a different color, honestly I like him that way. Why must we change him, why can't we work with what we have? He's not harmful to others, or defient. Granted we can't tell if he's learning or not, because it's almost impossible to test him with a standardized test. Today, and really this could just be today, I'm convinced theres something other than and maybe even instead of ADHD. Ok so we see a therapist tomorrow, and hopefully we can go to Childrens and get some testing done so we can create the best plan for Perry. Continued prayers for this truely blessed child I requested.

Noticed something interesting whenever you post a picture through hello...and you hit publish it drops a little icon through your screen. The first time it did it it was an heart dropping down over Switchfoot, then when I did the second switchfoot picture it did a little sign that said LOL.....thought I might be losing it, sleep deprived remember...so here some more photo's from Abby's birthday, wine, fondue and Jane Austin Party. 

Oh well will you look at that? There they are again. LOL.....they are dang cool.  

H is for HOT....cause I look HOT in pink. It started with the ipod....now the skirt...A-line skirts are an amazing creation! Got this hot little number at walmart, it looks nice and slimming on as well.  

Oh Hey....HELLO! Not only are these boys amazingly talented....but.....they are kind of fine, don't ya think? That's right people, my all time favorite band of all time.......why has this picture not made the blog until now?? Man I'd love to see them live! 

H is for.....EXHAUSTED

See I can tell what letter I am on but can't spell, because I am so tired. WW was not my friend this week and I gained 2 lbs which is the most I've gained in the 16 or so weeks I've been doing this "eat right" program. Frankly it's rather shocking I've not gained before, since like anything else in my life, I am super organized about the whole thing at first, counting points eating only the right foods ect.....then when I think I have it all figured out I slack off and stop counting, because I don't need to because I have it all figured out.

The ipod is a lovely, amazing, and beautiful piece of equiptment. But I've decided it's the devil. It and itunes kept me up way too late several times this week. I have absolutely NO "go to bed" discipline. I'd like to take this moment right here to blame my parents, for strictly enforcing a bedtime on me as a child. So now since I've been incharge of my own life for like 16 years....I don't think I've had a good 8 hours of sleep! It's a free for all people. My mind tells me sleeping is a waste of time theres 8 good hours you could be downloading music or scrapping....what would you be doing otherwise but laying lifeless in you bed sawing logs....BORING....! Theres really something I need to do to change my attitude, my body is telling me....."dude you need some sleep yo!" Any advice for changing my attitude is very welcomed.

H is for Holy Crap.....

Ok things I can say Holy crap...or Holy cow, depending on the mood.

Holy Cow, ipods are the most amazing invention ever! 205 songs on that bad boy and room for like THOUSANDS more! Amazing. Songs on repeat today? Take me away. Kind of feel like that. I found myself realizing something this week......Holy Cow I love my kid a whole lot. I get so frustrated because simple tasks are soooo hard for him, like 2 task instructions, or doing a few math problems. In my head I am saying, JUST DO THEM already so we can get on with our lives. But it's not that he doesn't want to, he can't "just do" anything. Unless it's drawing or singing. Oh that he can do. I asked him to stop singing just so we could get through some math problems, and he got so frustrated, and said "mommy, I try to stop the singing and I can't, it won't stop." I can illiminate all music from his life, but how torturous would that be? Music is just a way of life, I have music in my head too even when it ain't on, but I've learned in my 36 years how to tune it out (for the most part) so I can accomplish tasks like getting dressed or paying bills. Imagine how frustrating it would be to not be able to tune out the music, so instead you sing a long, sometimes delightful to those around you and sometimes.....not so much...same song gets kind of annoying after a while. Imagine, a lovely concert continuously, you're enjoying it whenever you want, except theres this annoying voice calmingly (for now), saying "please stop", "Perry please stop singing"......Interrupting the concert, but you keep singing......and then the annoying voice gets loud....PERRY PLEASE STOP SINGING.....In Perryland, that can be a bit frustrating.....guess what people, mommy has to live in that land, and a girl can only take so much!
Saw a child psychologist today, more of a specialist in the field of ADHD, I liked him. He suggested adding back strattera (I liked it when he took it before) with the concerta he's already taking. So maybe that'll allow him to tune out the concert, just tune it out so that it's always there whenever he wants to tune in.
I did a mid-week spark for the art journal, but I'll wait to show off the second assignment I am contemplating. Stay tuned.........

G is for GOOD ARTWORK!

I am taking a Art Journal class online here
It's very fun and cool to see what folks come up with! I really enjoyed creating the first page, it's the first I've been creative and loved it in a while. I so needed this! You can see what other peoples first pages look like here.

Goodness....

Geez, I've been on the G's for a while now. But I am going to make an attempt at doing a psalm of goodness. Here goes, it's gonna be lame I can feel it.

God how amazing are you
You created smart people
Amazing are you God
Smart people who make really cool things
Like Ipods
Of which you can load up with tons of tunes
for that life is amazing
Smart people who create marketing gimmiks
like cool colored Ipods
Like Metalic, green, blue, and more importantly
PINK!
You are amazing Oh God!

Ok so again, I never claimed to be David, but I bet with the right music I could dance like him. That's right I got me a Pink ipod! Ok so ultimately I wanted the green one, and my husbands real mad because he doesn't understand the concept, but I do, and had to have one.....life is good. Ok so the green ones have to be special ordered, and I wanted a cool color, blue is lame...black, white, silver......Lame......but pink very unpredictable and flashy....and it's very pretty. So any of you folks out there in blog land got any ipod tips....send them my way....do you use the calender? Is it hard? I'm a happy happy girl.

Greater Story Part 2

G is for....more of the Greater Story.

Tonight Allan led us through a study of Psalms. Holy cow who knew all of that was in there? 3 types of Psalms.....Goodness, Lament, and Hope. Goodness is your just there, nothing happening all is fine. Lament is going through crap, and Hope is what comes from the crap. Interesting, I've completely simplified what took him an hour and half to teach. He's the bomb by the way, very real, a bit of a spaz, but real. Which I can relate to real. He challenged those of us who may be writers, which I don't consider myself much of a writer, although I write here and have been writing since I was 12 in a journal. Once was a creative writing major in college, but all of those thing do not make me a writer. Not sure what that makes me, maybe a writer wanna-be. Ha! Ok so maybe I could try my hand at writing a psalm? I can only think of a lament right about now, just the mood I am in I think. Lemme give a try.

God I seek your face
and see nothing
I pray for help
and just get more troubles
You trust me with your creation
and I often feel I am failing
Why do you hide
why must I dig further
I trust that you are there
but often do not feel your presence
disorganization haunts my every turn
God you are probably under all that rubble
rubble of disorganized living and chaos.
Yet I continue to seek your face, and
believe you will show up.

Hey I never claimed to be David. Tomorrow I'll try my hand at a happy goodness filled psalm.
PS I don't think Connie is a regular blog visiter....hee hee...I've not been yelled at for the posting of the lovely picture. I am sure she'll show up at some point. I'm not telling her though...so shhhhh.....

Connie's going to absolutely kill me! But this picture is freakin' hilarious! This would most definately be defined as G is for GOOD WINE!
For a lovely photo of Connie go to Memory Creators, that's how she looks without a bottle of Riesling. Ha Ha Ha! Oh man don't kill me! See you Wednesday, unless you hate me!

Good Stuff!

Don't feel much like writing anything readable today. So check out this blog entry, pretty much how I feel. And I am not even remotely baptist. It's actually kind of shocking to me a baptist is some much like me in how they think. Guess I've never given it much thought. My house is clean, at least the parts that is open to the public is.....very unusual for my house to be clean, maybe I can keep it that way for a while.

Greater Story

Trying to stay with the theme of G, also wondering why I ever started this nonsense! What happens if I wanna say something that starts with S, when I am still in the G's?? Thus the way my mind works, must complete what I start, see it through, not leave it undone, just a work in progress.

Went to bible study at church tonight. It's on the Old Testiment, I missed the first 5 weeks because I had Ethos on Mondays, and cub scouts on Tuesdays, adding something on Wednesday would have been crazy. So Alan began with Job tonight. Wow.....ever read it? I mean really read it, seems like I've read bits here and there, but not the whole thing. When God finally responds to Job's crys.....God goes on for chapters, describing how big he is. Amazing! The description in The Message, starting with chapter 38 is freaking amazing to me. I mean Job basically represents all of mankind, and all the suffering we do. And God cared about him. And this was all before Jesus even came onto the scene. The descriptions in those chapters about creation is awesome, it's a new perspective then what's described in Genesis, seems to have more detail. So what did I come away with? Simple really. God cares about little old me. I may think that there are bigger problems God has to conquire, but he still cares about whats going on with me and wants me to spend time with him, even if it's me praying I have time to clean my house, or if it's me praying my kid does well in school, or it's me praying my husband gets enough sleep. And so it Gods...........and and Bob and Larry, oh and Perry would say.....

"God thinks your special and he loves you very much!"

G is for........

Greys Anatomy: Man that show is good. Talk about a guilty pleasure! Dr. Burke is actually kind of sexy, and Patrick Dempsey, I've loved him since "Can't Buy Me Love". I love this show, it's one show I watch all the way through uninterrupted.

God: Much talk about God here. But what can I say, I believe, and it's the reason I breath. Just wish I could hear him. Wish he'd speak louder, or his direction was clearer. Or maybe I need to shut up and listen, and everything would be more clear. Got to hook up with some wiser older women after church today, it was great just to sit and listen, I didn't really have much to say or contribute to the conversation. Not sure why. It was just nice to listen and absorb what they had to say. And to pray with them.

Speaking of God, man we are so fortunate at VCC, we get the amazingly talented singer Kate Miner to come and lead worship like once a year. She is my absolute favorite if I was a talented singer I'd sing like her and command the Holy Spirit to show up just like she does. Check out the link, theres a video on there shot at VCC 3 years ago, it's awesome. My challenge to you is give it a play listen with your eyes closed and worship, you won't be sorry!

Friggin Idiot!

F is for Friggin Idiot!
Ron absolutely hates this movie! I think it's the funniest thing ever!
Here's a little Napoleon Love.

F is for Fode.........

Ha Ha Ha....don't let her fool you she's famous! Just take a look here! Only famous folks have fancy head shots! Oh and a fancy blog with a head shot. See what happens when you deny your famousness?? You show up as the subject of Jodi's blog. So the rest of you better fess up or when I get to the letter that your last name starts with....your name is fair game!
Apparently theres been a small request for the F- BOMB!

F-Bomb: Otherwise the mother of all cuss words. I will not actually spell it out here so as not to offend, but I'll drop it all over the place just to prove my point. It's quite a powerful word, but honestly it's lost it's true meaning I think. I mainly use it to get the point across that I am really pissed off. Or extremely frustrated it flows freely. Yesterday I'd say I dropped it quite a few times. My child ADDness has consumed me this week. The meds are working I saw that last weekend, when he suffered through a 2 hour eye appointment, with no problems. And he was extremely good on the cub scout camp out. But then this week, he was so dang hyper! Granted when I actually see him in the AM he's not medicated, and in the PM it's worn off. Doesn't seem fair that school gets him medicated and I don't. He's all over the place, running from place to place the second his feet hit the floor in the morning. If we go to a store if he's not confined to a cart, he's gone. In a resturant he's in the chair and off constantly, or rolling around the booth. He won't sit still to eat, unless it's fast food (thus the name). I don't like the stimulant medication like what he's on Concerta and Adderall, both stimulants. I actually like the anti-depressant strattera best, because it doesn't have the on/off effect. You can probably tell my frustration, STRESS OUT! So I've said many times this week.........."f-bomb"!
Famous people quit stalking my blog, and comment already!

FAMOUS

F IS FOR FAMOUS

So because I am a scrapper, and I am a celebrity scrapper blog stalker like the rest of the scrappin world. I too did a self portrait photo shoot. Fun fun fun.....I think it's a cool picture, I got a couple cool ones. Ali Edwards made the challenge so like the rest of the scrappin sheep I had to do it. Ahhh yes famous. The scrappin world is full of famous people. I even know a couple. But my peeps know who I know, and the famous folks know who they are, lets not go and name drop right here on my blog. Besides if I really do know famous folks, they will be readers of my blog and they will actually comment. Ok heres what makes you famous. Being published more than twice in a scrappin magazine, being published in a local newspaper at least once a year or so that would make you famous. Theres other ways to be famous. But you people know who you are so just leave me some comments and then everyone will know yes, Jodi knows famous folks, her name dropping is leggit! Now celebrity status is much bigger than famous, and those are the people who have blogs that are amazingly inspiring, and their blog entries get like 50 comments a day. I won't name drop with those folks, because I don't know them, but wow if they are stalkers of my blog, I could then call my obsession leggit. I wouldn't call my blog all that inspiring, funny upon occasion, thought provoking maybe, but I don't think I've reached inspiration, unless you call that big headed picture inspiring. Ha.....Tomorrow I feel a blog coming on about the big F word. Get ready because it should be good!

F is for FREEDOM!

Freedom: Can mean a lot of things. Like my belief in God, gives me freedom from a lot of worry, because I know God will take care of me. What do people who don't beleive do? Do they just worry about crap all day? I can't imagine. Freedom is living in a country where we are free to worship however we see fit. Freedom is having a "listen to you body" day, of which is today, exhaustion and lack of sleep caught up with me so here I am. Gotta have one of those days every once in a while I learned that from my friend Weezer. Thanks Weezer! Creative freedom, I am spending way too much time here, and here, the books they recommend are full of really cool creative fun stuff, I need to have those. Or maybe just one. Live out Loud would be cool. And for photography and inspiring words I go here. Sure glad so many folks are blogging these days, just keeps me at my computer longer. Ha!

Fire: Camp fires are so awesome, warm and they smell so good. Kids sure do love to play in fire. We have taught those littel cubscouts well and no one got burnt, they know if a sticks in the fire it stays in the fire. With camp fires come Smore, gooey sticky yumminess! Oh and we made Banana boats more sticky yumminess.

I promise to do something creative today, and I'll post whatever creation comes out of me. Even if it's a cool recipe.

P-man loving the outdoors!
Doesn't get any cuter than this! He had a blast this weekend, campin out with the cub scouts!

E....humm..how about F?

Haven't I done enough with E already? I think so How about we move on to F, If I think of anymore E's I'll throw them in, no rules it's my blog!

F is for FANTASTIC!

As in fantastic weekend. Work has been annoying, just boring office crap, and politics you'll get it anywhere. So a fantastic weekend was very welcomed. Ron had National Guard this weekend so P-man and I were on our own. Camping with the scouts was our activity of choice. I being the procrastinator extraordinary, I had NOTHING ready to go to leave on Friday after work. Heck by Thursday night I had decided it'd be too cold at night to camp and I wasn't going, by Friday morning I had changed my mind back to going.........can someone say ADD??? Very much! It's no wonder I can get dressed in the morning honestly! I drive myself crazy, but decided after hearing from one person, it's how I operate, and it works out for me time and time again. Why waste valuable vegging, or brainstorming time on planning when you can fly by the seat of your pants at the last minute, and get stuff done in minimal time? I thrive on chaos, I welcome it, it's like a rush, a thrill! Why do you think I stay up so freakin late? All the planning is going on in my head, theres nothing organized about it. Much more creative to just throw things together really it is. So did it work for me this weekend.....yes....yes it did. Me and P, got to the campsite around 8:30 just at dusk, minimal light. Got our tent set up, air mattress and all just before the sun went down! We weren't too cold Fri. night, even though it was 39 degrees, but we had 4 blankets on us. He went right to sleep, so precious. Him waking up on Saturday morning, listening to the birds chirping, he takes a deep breath, eyes closed and says "Mama....I just love the outdoors!" Moments like that make me freezing my arse off all worth every second.

Farting & flatulence: One in the same. But did fart come from the word flatulence? It does happen at our house I'll admit it. Oddly Perry doesn't do much farting. Either that or he just doesn't announce it like most boys would. So polite that kid. Lots of smelly farters in my extended family. Ok why did I go there??? I'm a lady......really I am! Geez what's wrong with you people honestly!

Friends: I've heard many of my friends fart.....wait what's happening? Ha! I'm a lady lets try and remember that!

Friends: I have a great network of friends, each with their own unique gifts as to how they deal with me. No easy task really. I have close friend varying in lengths of time they've known me. Some I feel close to, even though I've not known them as long as other friends. New friendships are fun, when you really click with someone. Those people you feel like you've known for years. You talk to them like they know everything about you, but they don't, which means you get to share stories your old friends have heard many times. Love hangin out with my peeps, I have church peeps, scrappin peeps, old time faithful peeps, and stale peeps left over from Easter, I'll have to remember to give those to Layni, a friend who loves stale peeps!

E IS FOR EXHAUSTED

I am seriously exhausted. And I am not the one working 12+ hour days. That would be my husband. I am just exhausted from life in general. And starting a project at midnight last night. Duh....When the creative juices are flowing I forget the fact that I have a job, that I go to during the day, and a hyperactive kid I have to keep up with at night. It's just when I get in the moment and I have an idea, I have to go with it, because I am afraid it'll be a while when it'll happen again. So then all the sudden it's 3 am and I have to get up in 4 hours. It was worth it though because it turned out cool. I'd show you but the recipient may be a secret blog stalker, so I'll wait so they can be surprised. More about being exhausted. I think it's just running in general. How do people with multiple kids do it? I mean, he's only involved in one thing but add, my mom in a nursing home for rehab on her replaced knee, and running there every other night, and that's enough. Thank goodness I am on break from the one thing I am involved in, because then I wouldn't get any me time. Speaking of the one thing I am involved in, not many folks responded, see Ethos can't you see I really wanna know what people think theres no right or wrong answer it's just what you think. I'll just pray for you if you give the wrong answer that's all....ha ha....fairly harmless right? Ok Ok so I won't pray for you, unless you ask me to, really....I won't, how will you know actually? So leave me comments. Please don't make me beg!

Elephant: Melinda mentioned Elephant. Not really given this animal much thought as my favorite or anything, too big, not cuddly. Although either someone told me this, or I read it somewhere once a long time ago. If you just mouth Elephant slowly for folks who may be reading your lips, it looks like I love you. Not sure what use that info is, maybe if you want someone to think you are saying it but you don't want to, you could just mouth elephant.

Elegant: My friends dad likes to use this word, often when someones, usually a lady or a girl, is dressed all fancy.

Eclectic: Very much my style of decorating.

Earthtone: Very much my color choice for dressing.

Did I mention Exhausted? Yep I am!

EXCELLENT

E is for Excellent!

Lots of excellent things to talk about just from today. First of all this picture, that my brother found in my basement, (my mom used to own this house), brought it upstairs to take home, and well forgot it. Hee Hee...so here it is. My brother Kelly in kindergarten. Wasn't he cute? His little dimples! And my mom made that shirt, painted the tiger on it and everything. I believe the tigers butt is on the back....excellent. Notice his hair over his ears? We went to a baptist school then, and I bet you my mom got a talking to about his hair, boys had to have their hair cut above their ears. I'll talk more later about more excellent things from today.

What else was excellent was the new Jars of Clay CD I hooked myself up with today. It's a must have, all cool reworked old (very old) hymns. Love it! Love Jars of Clay, although I feel like I've abandoned them and missed a lot. Their second album wasn't the greatest, I gave up on them after that, and now sampling some of their stuff on amazon, I feel kind of bad, and feel like I need to catch up. Martin Smith from Delirious sings on one of the songs, as does Sarah Kelly. Love her cool raspy voice. Nothing like some cool Jesus jams to keep you on track!

E is for Ewwwww!

Ewww: The sound one makes when their child does something gross. Case in point on tuesday, Perry had a den meeting. He insisted on wearing his flip flops. When you are in a hurry, it's really not worth it to argue with a child. So I grabbed his gym shoes just incase they were doing track and field or something. We get to cub scouts and he immediately flipped his flip flops off and began running around the room barefoot. Granted he wasn't the only child running around while the Den leader was trying to talk, but sometimes if feels like it. Fast forward to end of meeting time. Perry no flip flops on his feet, the kids are standing in a circle getting ready to play silent ball. They have to be quiet for this game, and oddly enough Perry doesn't do too bad unless he has to catch the ball. Suddenly apparently Perry's left foot must have felt a bit dry. So what would one do if the bottom of their foot was dry and it was not in some sort of footwear??? Well what you do is, while standing on one foot you pull the other foot up to your mouth and you lick the bottom of the dry foot..........:::::sigh:::::::.........What's that? No that's not what you do? Well it's what my kid did. In front of all the onlooking parents. I was speachless at first, then I yelled EWWWW....Perry that is gross. So then he just licks his fingers and wipes them on the bottom of his foot. Equally as gross. Note to self: Footwear that ties and ADD medication is necessary for all Den meetings.

Ethos: A new ministry that I am involved in. Right now it looks very similar to Alpha, but in the fall it will not. Right now we are getting the framework for it and using Alpha material. In the fall we hope to have new curriculum so it looks very different. So what is Ethos you say? Allow me to do a little explaining and advertising for local folks who'd like to come or if you know someone send them we'd love to have them.

Ethos- (noun) The distinctive spirit of a culture or an era.

It's a safe place where folks can come and learn about God and ask any questions they want and hopefully find the answers. The coolest thing about Ethos is it's not at the church, so those who feel intimidated about a church enviroment can feel comfortable. Another super cool part is FREE DINNER at Rileys in Greenhills. So if you wanna check it out and want a free dinner for 5 weeks. It starts April 19th 6:30....call Rileys to register 851-8810 ext 301

Ok a little survey: Anyone is encouraged to answer this, whether you are a believer or not. Or even if you know folks who aren't believers, and you know what they are thinking. (like it's been discussed) What keeps you from knowing God better? What keeps you from becoming a follower of Jesus Christ? Or if you believe you are a follower, what keeps you from going to church on a regular basis (like every sunday)? If you are a believer, and do attend church on a regular basis, what keeps you from allowing others to know you are a believer? If you fall into any of those questions I welcome your response. If you know me, and don't want me to know who you are feel free to answer anonymously.

D is for Delightful.....which kids are in our magnolia tree on a lovely spring afternoon.

How so very glad we are that spring is finally here! You know it's spring when the blooms on our magnolia tree finally bust open. The kids sort of cooperated and let me take some fun pictures. Harolds has brought Maddie and Ashton over the past 2 days to play at the park with Perry, he's had a blast.

Drugs: Which my mom is enjoying after her knee replacement surgery this morning. It's a wierd human ritual, when a family member has surgery, one must go and sit in a waiting room full of other people waiting while someone is getting operated on. The wait is usually intensely long if it's a major procedure. This is a good time to people watch, which is what I've done in the past, however modern technology has allowed me to do other things with my time. My brother loaned me his portable DVD player it's really small, smaller than a lap top. Perfect to lounge on a vinyl hospital couch, and sit it right on your lap. I watched the Pianist, I just think Adriene Brody is dreamy. I must have a thing for guys who have a big nose. He was really good in The Village too. Something about his hair and his eyes I think. I watched most of it. Those of you keeping track via my blog. My mom is just fine, not in a persistant vegitative state, so there was no need for any big decisions on my part. Ahhhh....I told myself I wasn't going to go there. For the record I made sure she told me what I was to do in front of her pastor so I had a witness....geez why didn't she write that stuff down? People write it down! Sign it date it and put it on file at all area hospitals!

I promise to start doing E's tomorrow. So if you got some D stuff you wanna chime in on, now is the time!

D is for.........DREADLOCKS!
oh my that kind of makes me laugh. I say dreadlocks because, I just got a few new CD's, I am on a CD buying frenzy. But one of them was the John Butler Trio, and the lead singer has dreadlocks. Very cool. I had a friend in college that I worked with at Kings Island, Buffy, she had dreadlocks. Her dreadlocks were good and dready (is that a word), around the time I got married. She came to the wedding. My super conservative family didn't know what to think. One of my Aunts said...."who was the girl with the cocoons in her hair?" Ha Ha....

Disciple: Dave gave a good message on being a disciple this weekend. Something from the message that stuck out for me was how when you are really going through some stuff, and God just seems so distant. Like you know he's there, but he's not all up in the business like you gotta look hard for him. It's like he don't wanna make it easy, he wants you to pursue him, he wants you to seek him out. Sometimes don't you wish it was just freakin EASY? You're like ok this sucks, um God where are you? You see him, like very distant, like a shadowy figure....ok it's coming to me now. He desires for you to come to him a little closer, and then that is when he won't seem so shadowy, but very clear. I think that made sense, it just came to me as I was typing. I guess that's what makes a disciple? Some one who seeks to see God clearly.

Discipline: Much like the word disciple in looks only. Ah yes the dreaded discipline, nasty word. Especially when you have a kid who doesn't respond to it. He's not too terribly bad, but in a group setting like cub scouts it's insane. Granted he's not been on any meds the past 2 days, because we ran out, and the doctor was out, plus we changed his meds. So he's been off the hook. I don't even want to know what's going on at school. The only one I've heard from was his reading teacher who has him literally for an hour each day, so you know he's off the hook if she's communicating with me that he's out of control. Just like the book Driven to Distraction, being ADD is like being driven by a motor that never stops. Or it's like a gift that's really hard to open. The hard to open part is no joke. Perry is so hard to figure out, he's so inconsistent. One minute he's present and with you and you can converse with him and ask questions, the next minute he's bouncing off the wall and you can't even talk to him. Soooo frustrating. I pray that God allows us to open this gift, and that he's able to control his gift to use it to his advantage. God is quite distant in this stuff that's for sure.

D is for DOG!

DEFENESTRATE: (verb) the act of throwing/being thrown out of a window, usually a high one.
This is on my friend Stacie's blog. I've never heard that word spoken before in my whole life. Although thought about doing it with a xerox machine almost on a daily basis at my job. Possibly my computer upon occasion but not too often. Mostly the xerox machine. (thanks Stacie I was desperate for some material.)

Drugs: My cousin mentioned this. I am not in need of any drugs, other than something to make me not feel so blah, maybe something that would make me feel excited about cleaning my house. Drugs also make me think of my poor kid who takes drugs for ADD, he's on strattera only right now, and during spring break he had more good days than bad. Got emotional occasionally, but for the most part seemed ok. But it'll be a whole different story once he gets back to school, and is in a very structured enviroment. UGH.....He's very smart and gifted, draws very well for his age. Amazingly well actually. For as little as he pays attention, he's learned quite a lot if you asked me. Hopefully he'll be able to stay in a regular classroom for next year. He does need a lot of extra help. In a regular classroom they can't provide all the help he needs. Who knows maybe he'll switch meds and he'll be fine, and able to focus, and become a model student. We shall see. Very stressful.

Dishes: Ask anyone I HATE DOING DISHES! My friends know this about me. Its probably discussed in a great deal of length when I am not around. "Why does Jodi not own a dish washer as much as she hates doing the dishes?" In all my years of living on my own and being in charge of my own life, I have never had a dishwasher. Odd, I don't have anything against dishwashers, I've just never had the good fortune of owning one. Well everyone can now do a happy dance....we hooked ourselves up and here it is.
D is for DISHWASHER, so now stop talking about me! Check out item number DWD1500AWW
That's the one we got. An off bran made by maytag.