Holy Days

Wow what a great couple days. They were exciting holy days. It started on Thursday, when I (being not jewish, however curious) hosted a Sedar. Completely ok for Christians to honor some Jewish holidays, after all our Savior was Jewish. This one in particular has a lot of symbolism. The Jews for Jesus do a much better job. But I didn't do half bad.

The Haroset was exceptionally yummy. Thanks to Cyndi and Ben for participating, it was fun. Next year I'll know what the heck I am doing.

Good friday, I didn't go to church although I usually do. Instead I went to opening day at Kings Islands opening day. And listened to my prescious child whine the ENTIRE time, and he'd only ride the Merry Go Round.....ahhhh.....There was some cool new rides that I would have liked to ride, but he was too dang chicken. I went shopping with my mom on Saturday and then scrapped all evening with my peeps. I finished one page and did 2 others, it felt good to get some scrapping done, and have a burrito from Chipotle, (that's what we usually have for dinner when we scrap together). Then Sunday was a lovely Easter. We went to church, and HOLY crap where'd all those people come from. I attend a church that could probably seat 6000 people and I swear every seat was filled. Pretty cool I figure a large number of people were signicantly touched and possibly made a true life commitment to surrender their hearts to Jesus....cool stuff right there. The play I'll admit was sort of cool but sort of lame. But the message was very simple yet extremely powerful. Click on message and check it out. Good stuff. You know it's good when you husbands whispering...quit crying and the little girl next to you is looking at you like something is horribly wrong because you are crying. Had she taken a notice at her own mother she would have discovered it wasn't just me! Got to hook up with Stacie, for a photo op.....would be so cool if she got to move back to Cincy! But we'll leave that up to God he seems to know what's best. I do think Liam and Perry would get along great! Here that God? Wow what a fun weekend, but wait it's not quite over. Then we went to Layni's for a nice family dinner. Geegaw was there so she and BC (Layni's mom) could sit on the back porch and discuss ailments, and surgeries, while crocheting things. Layni made a yummy ham she had to babysit for hours.....this is why you pay HoneyBaked large amounts of money to do that for you. She hooked it up though. I made Jodi's Potatoe's top secret recipe.....you'll have to ask my good friend Abby for it, it's in my head but I'm not sharing it's probably a most requested recipe though. We hid 48 eggs just for Perry and Maddie they had a blast hunting them. It's nice when it's just the two of them they get along great and are so funny together. Wow this post could go on record for the most pictures posted. How about a few more....or maybe just one. Oh well would you look at that it's my HOT HUSBAND! This is a candid photo, because any other time I try and get a picture of him he's making a face, so I caught this one before he had a chance. Ain't he cute? He's mine so back off. Ok blog fans, this post should be ranked as one of the best. Hopefully it'll load properly with all the photo's.

Take a few moments and think about what Jesus did for you these past holy days.....he was by no means just an ordinary man.....HE IS RISEN!

HE IS RISEN!

Long time no blog. This Movie is the greatest example of what Easter truly means. It's late and I don't feel like saying a whole lot although I should, considering the true meaning of Easter is what it's all about. Sacrafice. Check Teri's blog, she says it all. Much more articulate than I can be at 2:30 am!

ANY QUESTIONS?

There's something missing? Yeah I know it's a pair beige ones, canvas straps, cushy sole. I know I know....don't need them do I? But they are so cute, boys section of the shoes, Target...it's a mission. 

Palm Sunday

Wow what a really great weekend. Now the hubby seems to have somewhat of control over the finances, he seems happier. He's still trying to tame me, but I am doing better. I really needed a shoe fix, so instead of getting more crocs ($30) I hooked myself up with a few pair of Old Navy flip flops $2.50, no one really complains about shoe buying when you are spending $2.50, and everyone benefits, Perry got 2 pair and one pair for Ron, 2 for me. Let's blame it on Stacie who's in town briefly, and just the mention of Old Navy flip flops, and my mind was consumed with the color possiblities. It's a sickness really. Ashton was with me for the day yesterday so she got 2 pair too. We then watched Saw I & II.....freaky movies, really good, but dang freaky! We both love a good scary movie. We had 28 days later too, but didn't get to it. Not sure I can watch a Zombie movie alone. Ron won't watch it with me, (he's a big scaredy cat). So another scary movie night is in order and soon. One good thing about having a 12 year old over with nothing really for her to do. Oh and she is like her mom and likes to clean. She likes the end result, yeah I don't get that sickness really, so you just gotta use it to your advantage. Perry's room was off the hook, and had been for sometime. Couldn't see the floor and the it was become a walking hazard. So I threw out a price and she was all over it. She did a clean sweep extreme makeover.....Perry was over joyed and she did an awesome job. Oh and for all the Curious George/Jack Johnson fans, not to worry, I'm going to leave them up for a while because I too love them, they make me happy.

Majesty

I know it's 2 am...duh....Delirious totally rocked. Now to be totally footloose and fancy free, and somehow finaggle a trip to see Switchfoot in Columbus the day before Easter, man I'd be so so happy! Not sure it can happen...bummer....But that don't make me too old to kick it hard core and rock out....or should I say Blissful Worship rock music! Man there's nothing better.....then music that takes you into His presence....love that....So I told Layni to stage a photo with me while we look worshipful..... This apparently is how nice girls who were raised Methodist worship their savior! Yeah, Yeah, I know pretty hardcore huh?

Scrappin Shout Out

So what is it that happens to you when you give birth? Does it trigger the ADD or what? Before I had a child 8 almost 9 years ago, I could read a book. I was a slow reader like it once took me a whole summer to read Jurrasic Park, but I'd read a book from cover to cover. Now unless it's written in short choppy chapters, with lots of pictures, I can't finish a freakin book. Last book I read from front to back was Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, which was a year ago. Quite an inspiring book, and was broken down in very short choppy sections, and it had pictures. Perfect for someone with ADD.

Can not wait till friday, scrappin with my peeps, and Archivers. Yes I know it's the big bad meany of all scrapbook stores. But they have comfy chairs, nice tables, they have decent catered food, and I've hooked up quite the posse to attend with me. Stacie's in town, so she said hey lets scrap at Archivers Friday night...so I mentioned it to a few she knew, then Archivers had to put someone evil on the phone with the pregnant friend, and not be helpful as far as table assignments. (so gay) So then I called in reinforcements so that we'd have a big ole gang hanging out on Friday. I think I got 8 people total to go in a 24 hour period. Insanity.....now if folks read this, maybe more will come. We get a tad bit obnoxious sometimes when we all crop together. We are sarcastic, sometimes a bit...hee hee...plus most of us have been scrappin together for over 5 years, so we know stuff and we know how to do stuff so the make and takes aren't all that exciting to us. Plus we've had a few run ins with the Archivers police, we aren't even thugs, I guess they just view us that way or something I don't know we try to be nice. I guess most of us have been annoyed with them on more than one occasion. Cause you'll call up and ask about a product you know they have and they haven't a clue what you are talking about. Or even in the store a customer will be asking about something and they'll get a blank stare in their face, and one of us who might happen to be in the store will be like yeah you got that and point them in the right direction. Anywho, we dig scrappin there none the less, so it's all good. So if you are reading this the Ohioscrapper scrappin posse will be at Archivers Friday night call and make reservations.

Who's the Fool??

Ok now who's the fool. Funny, thought there wasn't much traffic driving into church this morning. That's because everyone was ALREADY THERE! Forgot to spring forward! I swear I do this to one or the other every freakin year. Missed the baptisms, bummer. Perry and I did make it to the Kitefest....fun fun fun.....the whole sky was full of kites. We came home and managed to get our own kite in the sky. It's gorgeous out. Not going to spend it in here that's for sure!

Funny, Funny Stuff

I absolutely love it when I remember early on that it's April Fools day. I spend the first hours of the morning sceaming on how to get folks. Got my husband first thing this morning, said we were getting together with some folks he'd rather not hang with, and he was all like....ahhhh why? With a whole lot of whining....it was great....and I got to give the APRIL FOOLS shout, man I love that. Then I moved on to my brother. Told him, Ron and I got a decent bonus from the Army (yeah right) and we could go to Disney with him over spring break after all....told him we booked a hotel. So he was delighted. Poor guy, went on to tell me all the ways to save, and where to go to get good savings....blah blah blah....yeah not gonna happen, APRIL FOOLS sucker! Now kids are easy, told Perry there was a monkey in our backyard, he comes flying "where, where...." Right there see it, yeah poor kid....APRIL FOOLS....so then the torture begins, once the kid knows it's April fools day all bets are off, and it's hours of joke torture. Spiders in hair, shoes untied (um dude I wear crocs no laces), pants on fire, your noodles are talking, the sky is falling, it never ends.....but then the classic, the one that sent us straight into stitches, are you ready???? "Hey daddy.......you got hair!" OMG....now that was the greatest April fools joke of all. Well then he just got cruel, and even said...."Hey daddy, you're tall!" We then had to put a stop to the madness. Poor Ron, he's got a thick head of hair and is 6 feet tall, when he closes his eyes. Man I love April Fools Day!

My Brothers Fault....

For real. I can talk about sunshine, roses and worship music, and how God bless's me. And then become completely obsessed with a Korn song. I won't be linking them because it could very well be devil music for all I know. Very much headbanging music. This song Shoots and Ladders is off she shizzel...and dude has this super cool voice, and theres this cool bagpipe action at the beginning. And the drums, well they got a super cool beat going on. And he smashes all these nursery rhymes together as if that's the way they were meant to be. Back in the day we would have totally been cranking some Korn in the car, in the drive-thru of Burger King late at night. Doing some kind of headbanging dance, while the drive-thru worker looked on in disbelief. Who's up for some latenight drive-thru dancing, I got the ipod....come pick me up!

Weather Talk....

Ok theres a strict rule in blogland, well at least in my own head anyways...no weather talk unless it's extreme. Here's extreme...........IT'S SPRING FINALLY..........Thank the good Lord, time to roll out the flip flops and wear crocs with no socks. Is there a flip flop dance? There needs to be.

In other not so happy news: Best friend from high school's father passed away on tuesday. Services were on Wednesday, and funeral was this morning. I found out, today at 5pm, much to my shock. Husbands (work together) do not relay information well at all. We've not been that close for years, different interests, different lives, it happens. Theres still some contact, though. I hate that I wasn't there for her in this time. She's attended the funerals of my grandparents, and been there for me, I feel absolutely horrible. I cried, husband felt bad, but I can't completely blame him, us not being in touch can be to blamed as well. Had we been in touch I would have known he had been sick or something. Crap it just freakin sucks. I'll make a super lovely card this weekend and give her a call soon, I'm sure things are a bit crazy right now. And right now I talk about some memories. I'd say in high school he took a hand in my spiritual growth, he was a baptist minister, but we had different views on many things. He felt women should never be ministers of the gospel, I disagreed, and still do. We'd discuss different rules in the baptist church like no dancing, all these discussions led me to dig deeper in the word and come up with what I would believe to be the truth. Holly (my friend) and I once sang "To God be the Glory" in his store front church. He made Holly have a bumper sticker on her car in high school that read "If you died to night, where would you end up?" It was bright yellow with black letters. Lightning struck a tree, and it completely smashed that car. That was a fun time in my life oh so long ago, sorry I wasn't there for my friend. Ha, the only photo's I have of Holly and I are from back in the day, I think theres one of us floating around on New Years Eve a few years ago, but we both look dreadful. These are funnier anyways. Excuse the scans. Good Lord This first photo is from Junior Prom, in 1986, Holly's mom made her Scarlet O'Hara Dress....very pretty. Mine was made by an elderly neighborlady, I picked out the horrible lime green material, and another neighbor let me use her fake rabbit fur coat. UGH.....worst prom ever. My date was a fix up, God knows I wasn't going to score a date with my dorky self. He was a big jerk, and was cropped out of the photo. This other photo I am looking exceptionally dorky with my Guess overalls, a must have in 1986, and both of us in the color peach. Hold up, that's a layered look I was going for, with 2 "Outback Red" 10 button shirts, under the Guess Overalls. I do believe Holly is sporting a Forenza sweater. We were oh so trendy. Ok don't even try to discuss my hair, (it's a bob, and spiked on top???), oh and those huge glass's. Fun Memories, I miss those carefree days.

Prayer

Interesting thing happened during a huddle on Sunday. Huddle= leader meeting in vineyard terms. Someone shared about praying with confidence. And not just ask God for things, like a whole bunch of "I wants", those are kind of lame anyways, but if we know it's something that God might grant us, say like financial freedom, or healing or, someone to have a good God encounter, we don't just ask but we thank God for it already happening. Yeah I know sounds kind of nutty. I'm not saying, you should be all like ......"thanks God for hooking me up with a million dollars.", that's just freakin arrogant. You get what I'm saying, and there was actually a verse that went along with it, but I'm lame and can't remember it, so if any bible scholars are reading this leave the verse in the comments. So I tested it out, and wasn't even really thinking about it, I was just casually praying. Casually, meaning just doing my routinely lame praying in the car. I wasn't all on my face in the prescence of the Holy spirit praying I was just chillin in my car chatting. That's it. I just basically said, thanks God for taking away my worrys about our finances. That was it and I didn't give it another thought. Seriously what happened over the next few days was a little painful for me but nothing short of a miracle. My husband began to budget our money. Yes, I too was in complete shock. Not only did he budget he's got a plan that's going to last well into the summer that will give us a nice cushion so that we ain't broke all the time. Now heres the painful part. I get $20 a week for spending money. GASP.....So I am thinking of all sorts of ways to scam money. Like shopping at Aldi's for groceries which means whatever I save on groceries is mine to keep, and that means extra spending money. Except folks at Aldi's are a little bit scary. Seriously I'm not a snob, but sometimes folks can be scary. But heck 25 cents for a can of greenbeans, might be worth some scary folks. Ha! I'm totally kidding I ain't that broke. I've been there, and sometimes namebrand foods is just necessary! Oh so back to the reason for all the money nonsense.....that was from a teeny tiny prayer. I've been married for 15 years and this is the first time he's ever taken an interest in our finances. Hummm.....something happend....it's called DIVINE INTERVENTION. No telling what could happen if I fasted along with my teeny tiny prayer.

Heart for the Poor?

Me really? I don't get it. I've not had this feeling before. Am I being brain washed or is God really and truly breaking my heart? So I ended up in Church by myself this morning. It's the end of the Mercy Me series. Dave started talking about the Mt. Airy Mens Shelter, and Proverbs 31:30 Ministry both homeless shelters in my city. Many volunteers from my church provide transportation for these men and women to attend our church on Saturday night. So Dave said this past Saturday night at the beginning of his message he honored these men and women just by saying that to us they are more important than if the president of the united states was visiting. He had them stand up as he told them this, and that God had so much in store for them, to not give up. Something so so very small, and just words.....but to them...full of hope. Imagine being one of those people, whose lives have taken a bad turn and they find themselves homeless, and in front of thousands of regular folk, someone heaps a whole bunch of hope on you, and to know that a good percentage of those thousands in attendence in that moment were probably praying for you.....wow! So needless to say I cried a great deal (like now) at church today. Why? I guess because God is preparing me for that next step in this spiritual adventure. What that looks like? I have no idea, but I reminded over and over again of the verse:

1 Samuel 14:7 "Do all that you have in mind....go ahead, I am with you heart and soul."

So I continue to surround myself with people who will have my back. Can't wait to see what God has in store for me. Are you one of those people? Will you have my back? I'm just saying.....

Cleaning Again...

Does one ever get to not clean? I guess when you are loaded and you can hire a house keeper then your cleaning is less, but I would gather that even those who have house keepers still clean right? Man I hate cleaning. Found a pile of returned christmas cards. Which kind of annoys me. Like When we moved we sent out "we moved" notes within our christmas cards. We moved officially in October so a Christmas card seemed a logical choice. So why can't other folks send out we moved cards? Unless they don't want to be found which stinks. This year I've lost cousins, uncles, and friends into the postal abis. Can't say I didn't make some effort to find them, but if they don't want to be found then what's a girl to do? Guess I did my part now it's up to them. So if you are related to me, and you've moved and didn't get a Christmas card how about you send me something with a new address that'd be great. Off to clean something....probably paper scraps from my floor all over my house. He's a crazy, humming, scissor carrying maniac, and I love him!

End of Alpha

Always a bummer, but it's still bitter sweet. My tuesdays will be freed up till fall, so I'll be a cubscout Mom again. It's kind of good because then it gets me ready for spring and then summer without having to go to Alpha. I'll miss my table folks though, all very interesting and dynamic. Good to talk to Tom at the end about our experiences in different leadership roles and how God led us to that point. Good stuff, seems that I do not seek out leadership roles, ever, God just seems to lead me to them, and somehow while doing them I inadvertently bless some folks in the process of leadership. Is that what it means to serve God, do stuff you just naturally do anyways, and while doing so folks seem to get blessed. Must mean I'm doing what God wants me to do without really trying really. Theres something to that whole process. I think I might be on to something. I'm at mom's on her computer....dial up.....could be days before this entry gets loaded up. What with old folks and dial up anyways? Pray I can get my internet up and running by the weekend so I don't lose my dang mind.

Technology

Internet down at home. Pray that it won't be long, since I need new podcasts like right now. Some things in life just make me happy, music and podcasts are 2 of them. Oh and happy freakin spring with 4 inches of snow on the ground......enough already!

Good God Stuff

Bono seems to keep popping up in my life. He showed up today at church in part of a speech before Dave gave the message at church. I watched the whole speech. Many say that it was prophetic, I'd have to agree. It's freakin brilliant. Bono saying what is in a lot of peoples heads, is very cool. Bono quoting scripture from Leviticus, Isaiah, and Luke, seems just so awesome to me. Makes me glad I went downtown to serve folks who are less fortunate than me on my birthday. That's not something I'd normally do. I do an outreach maybe once or twice a year and usually around the holidays. I look at it as I serve folks I come in direct contact with everyday. Serving strangers a few times a year is an added bonus. Seems my encounter at the wedding last week sort of indirectly prepared me for what I would encounter downtown this weekend. I guess so that it wouldn't seem so foreign to me. And interesting how all this stuff that is taking me out of my comfort zone is all happening during a time that Dave is doing a series on the poor at church. It's almost as if God really does know what he's doing. So how it all this ties into Perry possibly going to a special school next year provided we can afford it and why I keep thinking about 1 Samuel 14:7, that's the part I'm still trying to figure out, but it seems like it's all trying to work together. It'll be interested to see how things turn out. One of the many cool things Bono said in his prophetic speech, was "instead of always asking God to bless what you are doing, get involved in what God is doing, because it's already blessed."
I urge you to watch the whole speech by Bono, you won't be sorry, it's very enlightening. Ecspecially the part about "Religion often getting in the way of God." Love that!

EXHAUSTED!!

Ever been so tired you can't even sleep? I've reached that point. Worked for 2 hours today (mind you I never work on the weekends, how do people do it?) Then I went to Proverbs 31:30 ministry downtown and taught some women who go to this shelter how to make bookmarks. Then we all ate a meal together. Cool experience, many of the women lived at the drop in center, some possibly on the street, just come and hang out at this shelter a couple women from my church run on Saturdays. God bless's the work they do there and it was fun to share with these women, and serve them. So from there we went to dinner for my birthday, and after that Perry and I went to a lock-in at the Y, because I'm just that crazy.
Got some cool pool pictures though. I love pool pictures, something about the color of the water, and maybe the super cute kid. Interesting as we were leaving the Y after the Lock-In, there was a sign by the door, the cornerstone of the building that said Established in 1969....ha....funny so was I.

Groupie!

Sometimes you just gotta know who to talk to! Or just have cool friends with super cool connections. I scored a VIP pass to the show Extreme Makeovers Home Edition. Yeah that's right you heard me, home of a Mr. Ty Pennington! He let me take this here photo while he took a break from shooting. Reluctantly I took the photo of his shirtless self, holding a power tool. Many of you who know when I went will recall that the house was done when I got there so you'll probably out me in my big fat lie, so yeah I didn't take this photo, but it is fun to look at don't you think. Kelly and I went to Sunrise, KY with out VIP pass's excited about all that we had to look forward to. A white tent full of design team talent, shrimp cocktale, time to converse with the design team about deep topics, just to get the oppurtunity to rub elbows with someone famous, was all we wanted. Yeah that was a crazy picture. After a crazy trip on some backwoods crazy roads in Kentucky, we get to our destination, Claysville Church, where we were suppose to catch a shuttle to take up to the house. We pass through one security check, on to another. Security check #2 was a security guard who has a surprising resemblence and deminor to Flavor Flav, seriously he talked just like him not quite as wacked, but loud and crazy. So Flavor Flav told us they weren't running anymore shuttles for VIP's, and we'd have to come back tomorrow........DO WHAT?.....Kelly told lie number 1 right about now, "uh....we drove all the way from Dayton, Oh, and we can't go up?" DAYTON, OH??? LOL.....Dayton is only like 20 minutes farther than Cincinnati, why use Dayton as a lie, Cleveland would have been more pitiful! He insisted that we had to go. So hanging our heads he headed back the scary blair witch project roads back to the big city. But then we remember passing the road that led to the house it was blocked off. I suggested lets play dumb, flash the VIP's and see what it gets us. We encountered yet another not too bright security dude, who said...."uhhhh....last I heard about that you had to go up to the church and catch a shuttle......" Damn-it! I was like "what we can't just drive up there? He's like "uhhhh...NO...", so we headed up the road.....then I was like wait a minute we can't give up that easy. I said to Kelly what if we came into the church the backway.....(a gravel road we exited on) which had no security. Park our car, slide into the long line that already existed....he'll never know. Kelly had a scarf, I had a knit hat I could put on, we'll have disguises.....LOL....it's a plan. Pass up the church right pass all security check points, slide in the back way, parked our car walked up to the VIP tent and stood in front of it like we belonged avoiding eye contact with Flavor Flav. Stood next to some lovely ladies, who were wearing the famous blue shirts. They said we're volunteers. Kelly's like how did you get to volunteer? They were like we just went into the tent and said we want to volunteer. We were like OK! Walked in said nothing about the VIP at first, just said "we're Volunteers", the girl was like "oh are y'all caterers?".....we both went....."Yep!", she handed us a blue shirt, press releases to sign, we then mention the VIP, she said oh well you can't be both so I'll give you your badges just don't wear them on the outside of the blue shirt. SCORE! Crap I hope they don't expect the caterer's to have food. LOL.....we got right on the shuttle....went right up to the house got dropped off. Went in the volunteer tent to get our assignment. Right away we were instructed to take 40 meals to the house from the Olive Garden Tent to feed the workers who were AT THE HOUSE, who hadn't eaten in 15 hours. We got escorted to the Olive Garden Tent and handed off to someone else. Once we got on the road to the house area, we were completely free to roam the worksite no questions asked. Holy crap. We did get the food and take it directly to the FRONT PORCH OF THE HOUSE. To which Ty was right behind the door. After we delivered the food, we hung out on the walkway in the front yard watching Ty shoot some scenes inside the house. Everyone was standing around waiting to MOVE IN FURNITURE. Are you kidding me? But once the Pottery Barn truck rolled up, the production assistant said Maggie had hand picked volunteers for moving in the furniture. Oh well, but we hung out and watched them lay the sod, was asked if we'd like to help...but we didn't want to get dirty. If we weren't responsible adults with jobs and true groupies we could have hung out all night into the morning for the reveal. But at 10:30 pm, we decided we'd had a good enough experience, heck we scored a T-shirt.....we better get back. We got to see Preston, Paige, and Ed (the english dude, I think it's Ed)...oh and Ty....hubba hubba...he had his megaphone. There were signs all over saying "no photographs", once I felt we had a sufficent experience I started taking pictures. I figured if we got kicked out we had a good experience. No one said anything. I was a little afraid to take photo's of Ty. It was so much fun being a groupie, we had a blast. Had we not encounted the right people we wouldn't have made it as far as we did we were totally lucky because security was pretty tight. We just happened to encounter a guy who was willing to work some magic for us. What fun being paparrazzi!

Deep Thoughts

Was listening to the Mosaic podcast today, as I often do on Monday. I get a little Erwin at least once a week. He's so dynamic and so profound, it's like he's talking about a connection with God, but in a way that isn't overwhelming, just that there's a God, and so therefor this is how we should live our lives. Today he was talking about Jonathan in 2 Samual 14, and about Samuels Armor barrier. Just how well the armor barrier would have had to know him. And that they invested into each others lives, they knew each others junk and in spite of that built each other up to continue to face battle after battle. Good stuff!

" You need to begin to ask yourself who in your life are you investing in? That in that critical moment, that moment where you need help, that moment you need others to join you in the adventure that God is calling you into. Who would look at you and say......?" Erwin McManus

"Do all that you have in mind......I am with you heart and soul." 1 Samuel 14:7

I think after I Walk on Water, it's a good possibility I'll need to Chase some Daylight. And while I am doing that I will also be experiencing, The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus. I am being forced to read like never before, and it's all good stuff.

Shoes???

Ok so my husband is giddy with excitment because he's on vacation all week, and theres a good possibility a week or so after his vacation he'll be going to day shift. DAY SHIFT?? Holy crap life as I once knew it is soon to be over. He's been on night shift for 10-12 years! I'll have to share the bed, I've been sleeping alone all these years and now? We'll need to get us a king size bed so it'll still seem like I'm sleeping alone. LOL It's actually a really good thing. It'll be a chance at a normal life. My house might actually get cleaned. He's already started. Last week he did the computer room which had become a catch all when we cleaned the rest of the house, that and our bedroom. Today, while I was out with my dad birthday shopping he started on the bedroom, and found shoes I ain't seen in like 2 years. I do wear all these shoes, at least I did when I knew where they were 2 years ago. With a hardwood floor things get pushed around so easily. So they slide further and further under the bed till you forget they even exist. I forgot how cute those pink flip flops were. Just in time for spring.

Upwards Basketball

The season has come to a close, with a fabulous awards ceremony at Fairfield High Schools Arena. What a fabulous Basketball program. A lot of hardwork goes into making this program a success.

The coaches did a great job teaching the boys sportsmanship and what it means to be Christlike. They had a speaker, Terry (Lewis I think) used to play for the Bearcats, during their final four days. He gave a great talk that was beneficial to the kids and the adults. The boys got a certificate, a coin, and a basketball.

Ron and I then went to his friend from works wedding reception. I am going to attempt to describe the experience without sounding like a snob.....ok....lemme see...Someone did comment the other day that they like my blog because I am raw and honest. WARNING: I AM NOW GOING TO BE RAW AND HONEST, AND I SWEAR TO YOU I AM NOT A SNOB.

I would not consider myself classy. Not at all, I mean I've been in my fair share of 8 weddings, including my own. All of which were fairly fancy affairs, probably the least classy wedding I was in was the one that had the reception at the VFW, and everyone got liquor'd up on Jagermeister, and many ended up going home with strangers, (ok so the last part was a bit of an exaggeration), however that was probably the most fun wedding, since it was all our college friends. Last year we got invited to 2 weddings both of which were fancy affairs, one of which could have been on TLC's a wedding story. Ice carvings, shimp cocktail bar, good food....nice dancing, place cards.....you get the picture. Heck we had a pretty fancy affair ourselves. So why is it this year....well....not so fancy. There was the wedding just before Christmas, where apparently leather was the dress code and no one told us. Then today, I'm not sure what was going on. This reception was at his friends house that he rents in Hamilton as in Lindenwald...(locals will know what I'm talking about) Beer, and Big K pop were the beverages of choice at this fancy affair, iced down in beat the hell up coolers, help yourself cake....meaning cut it your damn self, a bride who was yelling at her kids and at one point called one of them a crackhead......and Ron asked, "Why didn't we bring Perry?" I think he was serious. All that being said, Ron was the only friend from work who show'd up. Sad but true. Now granted it wasn't the most comfortable I've been at a reception, (this seems to be the trend lately) But if I have to endure 45 minutes of WAY out of my comfort zone type people to show a friend I got their back well I'm going to do it. Ron and I had a good discussion about it when we left to go to Starbucks (cause dude owe'd me after that nightmare). He said it kinda sucked that no one from work came, and he had considered not going too. But was glad he went. After thinking about it, I was glad we went too. I mean they ain't my people, and I doubt we'll be hanging anytime soon. But I know it meant a lot that we show'd up, you could tell. Although they didn't know what to do with us. The only thing they could say to us was, "So how's it going?" We have decided from now on if we get another invite, we'd like it to have a picture of the reception hall, picture of the other guests who will be there, and a sampling of the food. Just so we know what to expect, we'll show up, cause we are those kind of people. All the stuff you send with the invite will determine the amount of time we will stay at your affair.

Cleaning....

I freakin hate cleaning. And you can sure tell by my cluttered home. So today I tackled the bathroom. Cleaned the toilet. Ewwww....why me? I'm the one who actually pee's in the toilet. Men should always have to clean the toilet since they somehow can't freakin aim. We'll blame the smaller man of the house, but we can also blame the big man since he should be teaching him the fine art of aiming. Don't you think?

Fancying things up a bit. I hooked up my links all by myself and nobody was hurt in the process. Computer coding nonsense is not my thing. That's why I liked type pad so well. But alas I dove in and did it. If you'd like me to hook you up with a link give me a shout in the comments section. Several folks leave comments but not everyone has a blog, and not sure if those who have one want me to link them.

Fall Out Boy

Love this song....

DANCE DANCE DANCE

Amazing!

As if I haven't cried enough lately. Minding my own business I come across this story about a kid who is autistic, Jason and cried like a big freakin baby. Ironic it comes at the end of my own special needs childs basketball season. Where he struggled to even know what the heck was going on. To think someday after some extensive training from professionals who know what the heck they are doing, that could be him. Or not, but it'll be something else as spectacular I assure you.

Old Times...

Ahhh yes old times.
Perry: It's so great remembering the old times isn't it mommy, like when I learned how to use scissors. I live to cut things out.
Mommy: Ahhh yes, don't we all. Who the hell invented scissors anyways remind me to smack them!

You people think I'm kidding. The kid draws everything......EVERYTHING.....and then has to cut it out. So if he draws everything, and every waking moment of his life, and then cuts them out, imagine the enormous amount of cut up paper that I am unable to keep up with on my living room floor. It's quite overwhelming really, since apparently I am the only one who lives here and can instruct the child to pick the shit up, or give up and pick it up myself. Does no one else see that paper on the floor??? So now his latest obsession is My gym Partners A Monkey, yeah they go to Charles Darwin Middle school, because a yellow sponge living in a pineapple under the sea wasn't cool enough. Now we have a kid who goes to a middle school full of animals and his gym partners a spider monkey. Did people ever have gym partners anyways? Ok so he's drawing these characters off Cartoonnetwork.com, and I say "please don't cut those out....please.....I'm begging. So he's able to hold off, for oh say 15 min. I turn my back for 5 min, and he's got the freakin papers...in his room with his scissors cutting away. Ahhhh.....but then he comes in and says "Mommy I got something to tell ya,.......now don't be mad......I had to cut out my pictures. But look I'm throwing away the scraps." So I'm putting him to bed, and he says, "ahhh come on mommy, show me a smile, you know I live to cut stuff out." I do not make this stuff up, it's my life! I will someday soon accumulate a pile of these lovely paper creations and take a picture for the world to see.

Cube Crying.....

I am consumed with the enormousness of the responsibility of doing the right thing for my kid basically. As well as wanting to do what God has planned for me. So I'm reading comments from people who are amazingly supportive of my honesty, and see me completely for who I am, can not tell you how much it means to me when you drop in your pearls of wisdom as comments. But when I read them at work.....well....it ain't pretty! Probably doesn't help that the song by Kate Miner (brilliant worship leader and singer) just came on the ipod, yeah it's called "Who will cry for Me?" Stacie's right when she says....and I wish I could've remember this last night for my Alpha peeps......if God was easy to figure out, I doubt he'd be a God we'd be willing to serve. I guess I know "Who will cry for me....." Thanks for "getting" me.

HOLD UP....

Forgot to give a big ol shout out to Stacie for hooking up my sweet blog. She's got mad graphics designing skills. And she cuss's from time to time....shhhh....don't tell her mom!

Afraid.

I've had a few big disappointments in my life recently. Things I thought were God moving me in the right direction. Granted looking back I do recall significant doubt occurring during the time of making the "right" decision. So therefor I feel a big gunshy if you will. During the events of the disappointments, I didn't give up I kept pressing on with hope, only to not get what I myself wanted and being slightly disappointed but in no way devastated. Bummed for a day or two, then moved on. But because of those disappointments I am afraid I'll be unable to have faith when I need to. Does this make any sense to anyone or am I talking out of my butt? Oh how I feel that way often. Everything in my being tells me to pursue this whole Springer thing, yet I'm afraid I won't have the gumption to push for it. Like because of disappointments I'll begin to doubt, and not push forward and that would be a disservice to my child. So I need to build myself up to be a freakin grown up and get shit done. End of story. If it doesn't work out it doesn't work out, I'll move on. But there's part of me that like "Ok God but now it's my kid you are messing with, and if this doesn't work out, I'll be more than disappointed." This could be the time I am devastated. Ok Ok Ok....wait a minute! God doesn't mess with you! Geez.....he nudges you to pursue things that are outside of you comfort zone to build character, even if he knows things won't go the way you want them to, he's building my character so that, when I do pursue the thing that will happen, I'll have built up the character to do so......HOLY CRAP....now that people was a cathartic moment. Or as Oprah says, and Ah-ha moment. Only a good Christian girl, like myself can use the word Shit and God in the same blog and get away with it. I challenge you to do the same. It'll feel good, and seriously God doesn't care. He's just happy you'll be talking about him. Now I wouldn't suggest dropping F-bombs.....but cuss at will.....it'll feel good.

Overwhelmed

I am completely overwhelmed by lifes responsibilities. Work, finances, child raising, husband raising, schedules, scheduling me time, church, leadership responsibilities, domestic responsibilities, extended family, friends.....it's never ending. Does anything ever just happen without the involvement of me in some way? No, highly unlikely. I will give my husband props for making an effort to be up and ready to go to church early yesterday. He was a tired and a complete ass most of the day, but he made it to church for the 10 o'clock service, and I believe he was actually touched by the first part of it, the rest of it he was fighting falling asleep. I would very much like things to just happen like him being up and ready to go to the 10 o'clock service, that was clearly and HG hook up (Holy Ghost or God hook up) why can't all things happen that way? Like my kid going to bed and staying in bed and just going to sleep without getting up and begging for a snack at 10 pm.....yeah it's too late. Why can't the bills just be paid, without me having to do it? Why can't the house just clean itself? Why can't all the big decisions in life just be easy to make without trying to make sure you are making the right decision? Why can't life just be normal? Sorry that post probably made no sense to anyone....except me who is clearly OVERFREAKINWHELMED!

GEEGAW!

Geegaw and the Wee Gnome
Originally uploaded by Yoda0419.

Ok so mom says I am ashamed of her usually and often a whole lot of other nonsense...the women suffers from low self esteem or something. She's quite lovely actually. Look here she is with the Wee Gnome at my Nephews birthday party. If you click on the picture you can see what else he's been up to. So mad props to Geegaw for going to the circus with Perry at the last minute so Ron and I could go to the Springer School Open House.

THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH

A little about the circus. Layni (my best friend) and I used to go to the circus before I had a kid every year. We'd always get the snowcone cups because they were always so cool. So I couldn't wait, to go and get my cup, cause really it's really the only reason to go right. Because really walking on the tight rope makes me a bit squeamish. The motorcycles in the giant steel cage is completely frightful. And after what happened to Roy...well the tigers are just unpredictable. And clowns, well after the movie IT, they are kind of creepy. Ecspecially the the Bello dude they got traveling with them now, he doesn't even look like your traditional clown, do clowns evolve??

So Geegaw and Perry went to the circus with some friends from cub scouts.

Ok so Ron and I headed over to Springers Open house. Gosh what a breath of fresh air. The school takes a total of 200-250 students a year. The class sizes are 12 students at the most. The teachers all have educational assistants, so theres 2 people for 12 kids.....WHAT? The teacher I spoke to said that more often than not she is working with kids one on one. She'll have a group of kids no more than 4 at the most. Can you imagine the concetrated educating that goes on with that small of a class? All of the children in this school have learning disabilities, so the kids are not looked upon from their peers like theres something wrong with them. It's more like "what kind of learning disability do you have, oh really well I have that too." I'm not saying the seclusion is the answer, but building ones self esteem, and being accepted by your peers is such a huge part of growing up. If you constantly looked upon as being "different", you begin to build a wall, it's hard to get over or through that wall. Perry already will say "well mommy I'm not really that smart." How can he feel that way already at age 8?? I haven't told him that, I've only told him how smart he is from the time he could understand what I was saying. So somehow the message of "you aren't smart is being communicated to him from somewhere, yeah see I don't like that! And if you have this kind of an oppurtunity early on, by the time you get to high school when the more difficult peer issues begin to happen he'll have all sorts of strategies and confidence theres no question he'll be able to handle it. I so want him to have this kind of oppurtunity. There are 2 big obsticles that would keep him from it. 1. MONEY, we don't have one of those trees in the back yard, right now they are doing possibly 50% financial aid, but that doesn't mean we'll get that much. 2. Location, it's about a 40 minute drive from our house. We've not explored the transportation options of which there could be many. These 2 external options makes my husband shut the whole thing down as even an option. He's so much a glass half empty kind of person and I am the complete opposite. I am a "wow this place is perfect for him who cares how much it costs or how we are going to get him there, lets just get him in." Not sure if that's good or bad. So heres the thing I've not yet given where he is now even the oppurtunity to come through on educating him, it just seems like such a burden that I have to fight and work for every step of the way. I am not confident that him being educated properly and well where he is now is just going to happen without a constant fight. Not to mention what happens to him when he's not being protected by a teacher or friend when no one's looking. How is he being treated? Why can't I just be by his side where ever he goes or standing off watching so nobody picks on him? All kids should have a mini mommy who shrinks down like Mike TV in the original Willy Wonka, and you could just slide mini mommy in your pocket or backpack, and when punk kids pick on you you can snap your fingers, and she becomes life size, and puts the punk kids in their place, or give them an annoying lecture on how to treat kids who might be a little bit unique. Oh and when we were taking a tour (some of the mom's who read my blog will love this) all the kids have lockers, even the primary age kids, and many of the lockers were decorated with their name and stuff, well one of the lockers had a bumper sticker on it that was retro looking and it said Autism Awareness....how cool. You wouldn't see that in your average public school. Ok so big decisions to make, and we have an IEP meeting on the 16th. So be praying oh faithful prayer warriors.

ADD book

cover
Originally uploaded by Yoda0419.

Heres a book I created to document our journey with ADD. It was great therapy. I did it because Stacie told me to initially. But once I really got into it, after alll the evaluations were over, it was so so so very helpful. If you click on the picture it'll take you to the rest of the book.

It's been a Month.

Can you believe it? A month since my idea to be a trader. I am leaning on returning to blogger. I might be able to fancy things up a bit to make me happy. With the help of Stacie, we'll make things prettier. Lots to talk about but for now just wanted to give folks a heads up that I'll be back to blogger tonight. And typepad is getting shut down this evening. In the mean time heres a picutre to hold you over....that's my man and my niece. Both are pretty darn cute. Lots to update you on, stay tuned.

Trader...?

Ok I'm going to give typepad a try. Go check it out. I don't think I'm going to like it as well as blogger. If I can figure out how to customize my banner here at blogger I'm gonna stick around so far theres not a lot I can do that I couldn't do here, it's just a little more user friendly over there. So we'll see. Check it out.

Back in Business

So when I was beside myself with fear this morning that my ipod having days were numbered, my co-worker Angie felt my pain. She too is a member of the ipod obsession club. Probably because she works in the same place and hears the same people talk all day long, you have to have a way to tune folks out. Well she was frightened for me, and my ipod. So when I called Apple and they told me the news I was rather excited and joyful at my good fortune. That within 24 hours my ipod would be either new or back in working order. So I told her that "who ever that guy is, I could just kiss him I'm so dang happy." Obviously I spoke out of excitment, cause I won't hug folks much less go around kissing strangers. So I added...."well I mean, if he's cute." Ha.....well.....unfortunately for the ipod "genius" (it's what they are called), I'd rather call him a geek, but they like to refer to them as genius's.....yeah goodlooking he was not. Saved my life yes he did, but a kiss he was not getting from me. Dude could barely speak, he looked like a white version of Urkel, except he dressed cooler. But he messed with my dead ipod for less than a minute and said I'll be back with your new one....I'm sorry do what? And he brought me a brand new 6GB pink mini......YIPPPEEE.....no the size of a dang credit card nano, or a too much technology video, good old fashioned mini. Thanks Apple, Ipod Genius......Mr. Steve Urkel.

Truely a Sickness!

People who are close to me know that my ipod is a necessity. My job however mentally stimulating can be boring, and I am a cube dweller so therefor I am surrounded by talkers, who sometimes I just don't wanna hear what they have to say. So my work productivity is better off if I have an ipod. My company should provide it honestly. And now that I am a lover of podcasts well I have to keep up with Sean Hannity, Mommycast, Erwin McMannus, The Crappy Christian (not reccommended for everyone), The Bored Again Christian (highly reccommended), among other nonsense I love to listen to. Well my pretty pink ipod took a spill last night. From the desk to the hardwood floor, face down............UGH..........I quickly snatch it up in hopes that it had not been injured. There was a pulse (sound), it could see me, but I could not see it. Meaning, no words on the screen. I did all the things reccomended on the apple site, reset, restore, NOTHING......thank God theres still sound. So it could still be listened to, I just didn't know what I was listening to. And no shuffle so everythings playing in alphabetical order, I'm in the B's so I am catching up with Bored again Christian, thank God that means at least I have some talk and variety.

As soon as I got to work I contacted the fine people at Apple. My pretty pink ipod has an appointment this evening. If she can't be fixed they will replace it.....ahhhhh....how cool is that. Except I hope she doesn't have to be replaced, and if she does I hope they have back up pink mini's because I wouldn't be satisfied with anything else.....now if they were to give me a 30 GB with video to replace my 6 GB no video, well that wouldn't be so bad, but I'd imagine they'd try to replace it with a nano.........nice..........color.........to dang small. So those of you who understand my obsession, and feel it worthy send up some words, God is not above a little ipod love besides, I'm being theologically educated by the Crappy Christian. (yeah see that is a big joke, if you ever listen to them.....and you know me, you'd know that's a joke.) More like I am being educated by Erwin, not to mention spiritually moved and inspired.

POOP!

It's been quite a while since we've discussed poop, on the blog. Actually has poop ever been discussed here? If not geez, what have I been waiting for. I am not too proud to discuss poop. That's right I've gone directly there. It's DTMT, and today I reached an all time high of way too much stuff. Seems I am always wanting to top the tuesday before, I'm not so sure I'd like to top today.....I am done finished so over DTMT, (until next Tuesday, than it's game on!) So I have enjoyed my time spent with the lovely folks at Childrens hospital, however 3 doctors visits in 2 weeks, plus one more today, for a total of 4 IS TOO DAMN MUCH INFORMATION. I do have my limits. Today's visit was one of those follow up visits with his regular doctor, you know the ones where they say, I'd like to see you back in a month, this particular visit I had hoped we'd already have our results from our evaluations, so it'd be a good time to see him, but we didn't so I tried to reschedule, and he made me keep the appointment. So I went from meeting with the folks at Childrens who block off 4 hours for one visit, and treat you like you are the only patient on the planet they have to deal with, to our family physician who's got 10 min for you to download all the info you've aquired in the past month to him so he can come to some sort of conclusion on how to treat your child. Riiiiiiiight......not going to happen. He up'd his dose of medication in hopes that we can increase his 5 SECOND attention span to maybe 10.....brilliant, I have no doubt that is going to be effective. I swear if he's zoned from this increase, I'm giving up on meds all together. Ok so back to poop.....so my kid apparently has this condition Dr. Green refers to as D3, theres a rather lengthy really hard medical term for it, but nobody wants to know that, besides I can't remember it, and it's hard to say. So he's had issues for, well forever with pooping. I've almost gotten it down to a science as to when it's going to happen. My success rate has been better than previous years. But I'm not always successful, and once you read about this condition, he doesn't know it's happening basically. Trying to get a child with ADHD to sit on the toilet for a long period of time is like Steve Erwin trying to take down a giant croc. So that's where the gameboy comes into play....thank God and it usually does the trick. So anyways today was DTMT, with the added bonus of an unnessesary doctors visit. So he got off the bus, and we ran directly to the doctor, he had time to pee, and that was it. So we get in the room at the doctors office, and I was like gross, there must have been a baby in here with a poopy diaper. Nothing registered at that moment. So the doctor comes in we discuss medicine, evaluations, ect.....and he has Perry jump up on the table. A unnecessary doctors visit becomes suddenly no longer a waste of time with they listen to the kids lungs. And he says "the D3 (he used the large unpronouncable word) seems to be out of control huh?" I'm like not really, we seem to be ok. He says, "kids with this condition will often have an odor." I'm all like defensive and say I think it's that garbage. LOL......he's like "check his pants when you get home." (and then smirks at me...gasp) Suddenly I am flooded with memories of my brother and I as children always taking a bath before going to the doctor so that we were the cleanest we can possibly be, or brushing and flossing before going to the dentist. And here I am taking my kid to the doctor probably bacteria infested and here now he's pooped his pants. Yes that's right he had, and it wasn't pretty. Big kid poop ain't the same as baby poop. And it sure don't smell the same either. I have dealt with poop far longer than most mothers, and it ain't fair, nuff said. We hope to treat this condition properly this summer when we can sufficently clean him out in the privacy of his own home. For now I just need to be more on top of things even on DTMT. Now I've completely aired all, I've reached an all time low with my ravings.....but seriously did you come here on DTMT for some sort of theological lesson? If so, sorry to say you've come to the wrong blog. That only happens on Thursdays, so come back then for something less gross.

*If one of my super cool creative computer savy friends (Stacie) could create some sort of DTMT icon to replace my self portrait tuesday sign, that would be way cool.

I still Got It!

Apparently no one else does. I could be....... HERE......but Ashton (friends 12 year old) is on lockdown (grounded) for bad grades. DAG! And all, I mean ALL my friends are old beyond their years. Except Stacie, problem is she lives in Maryland, hello......kind of far, besides it's Pinewood Derby weekend for the whole US apparently. They're going to be in Columbus next weekend, wonder if I can get a posse together, or spring Ashton from incarceration and go get my party on? Uhhhh....did I mention the Sphere of Fear? Yeah that's right we are missing the Sphere of Fear! Dang it sucks being a grown up!

Unforgiveness......

I urge you to go see the video they show'd at church last weekend. I really felt it soften my heart, quite a bit. Go to VCC Productions, click on last weeks message then you can fastforward it to 52.48, and then just watch and feel.....amazing stuff! I can't imagine having that kind of ability to forgive in that way.

Meds are Good!

So it's kind of blurring, it was with my camera phone. This is Perry in the soundproof room at childrens. Which I could have got him with the wire earplugs that tested his hearing. So flippin cool. The soundproof room with the window was way cool too. Why do I not bring my camera for these occasions? I do have it to document though. Good news theres no problems with his hearing. He doesn't have bionic ears either. The fear of loud noises is probably some sensory issues that OT will take care of. We've been at childrens the past 2 days. The developemental disabilities area is just a fun place to be. As is the main lobby. Just folks milling around. Tons of fun colorful murals that just make you happy. Everyone so dang nice and friendly. They always gotta be happy so they can keep the kids happy. Love that! This was our last test so now we wait for the psychiatrist to compile all the data, and then we go from there. It's actually been a fun informative process. Wouldn't trade it for the world. Funny.....forgot to give Perry his meds this morning. Thought he'd be fine, since during the testing he was totally focused and did well, but as soon as we left Audiology....well it was apparent something was missing, such as CONCERTA. The humming doesn't stop, and he feels the need to run pretty much everywhere, and he doesn't walk in a straight line he zig zags, and apparently is unable to be aware of other people space. Yes it's exhausting, ADD medication is a very good invention and I LOVE IT! Here is mister super hyper by one of the cool murals, this ones in t he main lobby, it's of the world, and it has movable parts, and a ginormous sun that spins. Thought Perry looked like he was modeling the giraffe here. Ha! Love him so much even when he's outrageously hyper.

The Truth Matters.......

Dang it I was home today and I missed it. I didn't know. Go Oprah, she outed a liar. Although that doesn't mean it's not a good book cause it still well written. (I haven't read it yet, I own it as I do many books I haven't read, but my mom read it and assures me it's a great book, I will put it at the top of my pile of books that I am one day going to read on a deserted island.) Why not just write it as fiction and use some of your life as inspiration. Can't you just say that at the beginning. "I used my life for this book and embellished it quite a bit." Reminds me of an episode of Gidget where she writes in her diary about this dreamy kiss with this hot surfer dude, that just didn't happen, but her dad read her diary and thought it did. Fact is the truth matters, and Oprah was keeping it real. I think I'll stay up and watch her at 1:30 am.

Ok if anyone cares, I'd like these shoes. I know they are ugly, but I bet they are comfy. Like in a birkenstock kind of way. I think I'd like the butter yellow, and in a size small, and my birthday is March 18th, so if anyone would like to hook that up straight away that'd be sweet. You'll need to sneak them into the house without Ron noticing since I think he might leave me if I bring another pair of shoes that aren't for him into this house. A GIRLS GOT TO HAVE OPTIONS. Besides when I'm down shoe therapy always brings me up. I'm not down, I'm just saying. One of the best things about discovering podcasts is rediscovering Sean Hannity, a fine american indeed. Just yesterday I was listening to him and he was doing man on the street where they ask regular folks on the streets of New York questions about polatics, admittedly I didn't know some of the questions myself, like that dude who's being elected to the supreme court that's got the democrats flipping out. I know now, except his name escapes me, and I couldn't remember who Bush ran against, in a pinch, John Kerry, I know now, and I thought Condi Rice was Secretary of Defense, but she's Secretary of State.....I know these things now, thanks Sean, but that's not my point. The point is, there was a homeless women they ran into, in her 20's and they put her on the air. Sean show'd such compassion for her, it made me want to go reach out to some folks right then and there (but I couldn't cause I was at work). He asked the women why she was homeless, and she said she lost her job at the smoothy stand. He asked if she had family that could help her, and she said they had their own problems and lived in another state. He first offered her $10 to get on the air. Then he put a shout out to his listener to call in if they could hook her up with a job. The phone lines went nuts. He got a contact number for her, and told the intern to come to the station he was going to give her $100. Then his he told the guy on the air with him he could pitch in $100 too, and he said I'll give her $500, so Sean said I'll give her $500 too. So it went from $10, to $1000 in a matter of minutes. A fine, american indeed.

SMITTY!
Almost forgot to mention about Tuesday, definately a DTMT (do too much Tuesday), Perry had his derby practice (Ron went to that), then I had Alpha, but that wasn't all that was going on at VCC, come to find out on Friday and then again on Sunday, Michael W. Smith, or "Smitty", if you are a HUGE fan like myself, was going to be at the Vineyard on THE TUESDAY, to promote his new movie Second Chance. But I had Alpha, and hello I'm a table leader, and it's only the second night, so it's not like I can say hey you know I can't make it cause I wanna go see Michael. Yeah that's right such a huge fan I have a scrapbook page about him! So, as a grown up I did not dismiss my responsibilities, I led my table and so glad I did. I did try and catch a glimps of Smitty inbetween our talk and discussion time, caught the back of his head and that was it, it's all good. You'd think those folks at VCC would have been more sensitive to a groupies needs and had him come in the gym and at least say hi!

MIA

Well I'm not really, just busy busy busy, and internets down at home. Over the past few days I've had a ton to blog about, but I've forgotten what all that was. I do remember I wanted to plug Sundays message, the whole thing was good, but if you don't have time fast forward towards the end and the video, was particularly life changing and amazingly thought provoking, she said all the things we as christians think often but aren't able to articulate so eloquently. Amazing.

Unstoppable Force........

That's right bout to get all crazy spiritual on you right about now. With the discovery of podcasts, I now have the priviledge to listen to Erwin McManus over and over again. Dude is OFF THE HOOK. Listened to the one on prayer today at work, he's just so dang brilliant. His preaching style is that of a baptist minister, he's somewhat of a yeller, but once you get past that and absorb all that he has for you WOW........so motivating and heart stirring. Makes you feel like God is really speaking to you. Interesting thing he pointed out which I've actually thought of before. You often see statistics that say 80% (that's a guess but it's something like that) of average folks pray. To God I would assume. He's saying what sets Christians appart from everyone else is, when we pray we hear from God and obey. When God speaks, it's not a subtle request it's a command, and it's up to us whether we act upon it. So I'm asking you, my faithful blog reader.......DO YOU HEAR FROM GOD? I encourage you to hear from Erwin.....you won't be sorry!

WOMEN WANTED

Cyndi might just kill me for this but here goes. So in my lame attempt to start yet another small group, I've frighten folks off I guess. Initially I had 3 people interested, then lost one, then I had 2. Both of which were really excited about the idea. Then I lost another, not sure why, or where she went, I called....what else can I do....so it's just me and Cyndi now. As lovely as we both are, it'd be fun to have some more input from other lovely women as well. We got to choose the book cause hey you weren't here. and we chose Brennan Manning's The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus Trust me I combed through countless womens books and was drawn more toward his books and Donald Millers books. I think it's going to be really good. The next time we meet will be the Thursday after next, so if you know me and wanna come call me. I don't wanna advertise really at church (is that wrong?) It's a huge place (as if cyberspace isn't bigger) and you get all kinds of folks calling you, I kind of want to be able to pick folks sort of I'm sure you know what I mean. If you don't well you can go on and be a hater, it's my blog, and my small group and I can do whatever I want.....ha......man that felt good. Can you remember when you were kid thinking that, "I can't wait till I grow up and then I can do whatever I want!"? I'm a grown up!

Mr. Pibb+Redvines=Crazy Delicious!

Lazy writer....

Ok so is it wrong that I am too lazy to journal and I blog instead. Problem is if I wanna talk about folks who actually read my blog, well then I just have to write. Had our special ed appointment at childrens today. Nothing more satisfying than someone who gets your kid. Who upon meeting your child for the first time instantly connects and loves him. I was completely comfortable with Dr. Carroll as soon as I met her, she was so genuine. Before spending time with Perry she asked me a few things about school, and if I was happy with his IEP (individual Education Plan). I informed her that I was happy that this year was less stressful for me, but I didn't think he was being pushed towards his potential. Seems that he is learning less, and the expectations are lower since he is in special ed a little more than half the day. She spent about an hour and a half with him doing some testing of his abilities to see if he is working up to his age. And afterwards she said he did wonderfully and that he is very bright. And one of the first things she said to me was he just needs an aid. Ding ding....that's the first thing Mrs. Emenaker (1st grade teacher) said in our very first intervention meeting. Probably the most expensive intervention method, but if it's what he needs why can't we have that? The assistant principle when this was first suggested in that meeting was like that can't happen. Apparently a kid has to be severely handicap to get an aid, I guess. Perry's attention span is 5 seconds.....5 SECONDS, he will write word and then watch a bird fly outside, get redirected write two words.....and think about whatever scene from a movie is going on inside his head. At this rate his first novel will be done when he's 80. Dr. Carrol is going to suggest an aid in her report, once all these evaluations are done there will be one big report, and we'll develope a plan of action to take on the school. He's going to be an artist someday and in order for him to be a brilliant artist who makes a good living, the schools going to have to step it up a bit and teach him in a way he's able to learn. That's not to say they aren't doing their job now, heck I don't know because they don't communicate with me dang it. That's another thing I need to work on again. Dr. Carrol gave me some good suggestion on how to get them to communicate. So I'll give them a try. Keep the prayers going, they are working, I'll make sure the famous Artist Perry does some artwork for your walls! Been absorbing the scrapcasts, it's a really good podcast, with some great suggestions. Lynette knows her stuff. Check it out Scrapcast.

DTMT

That's right it's suppose to be self portrait tuesday, but I'm not a fan of my hairdo so no self portraits. Instead it's do too much tuesday. Or over extend yourself. But honestly I do one thing, I just have to schedule others to do the other things I would be doing if I was not doing my one thing. The scheduling others is the hard part. But everyone fell into place, and we skipped homework, we'll attempt to throw that in in the AM, we'll see what happens.

New session of Alpha, here we go. Always a fun ride, just the first night you are always skeptical, and excited, and uncomfortable, but I am hopeful that God will use me in some way, he always does. Good stuff. Love it!

Oh since no suggestions were made, I found this lovely little video. I've never watched the family guy but this is dang funny. Puke is funny when it ain't you, your kid, your spouse or the person who gets to clean it up.

I suck!

No matter how hard I try I can not get to bed before 1 am. No matter what I do. Tomorrow is DTMT (do too much tuesday) and I have nothing prepared. I did well by calling my new Alpha people, but after that the motivation to be organized fizzled. So I sat and ate dorito's and orea's....and I had McDonalds for dinner. Brilliant....I feel like a ginormous fat cow at this point. I've seen a tiny bit of interest in the magazines. Once I distribute some to the locals that expressed interest, Heather I will attempted to motivate myself to fill one of those one price boxes and send them off to Oklahoma....at least I think that's where you are, only if you promise if you are ever in Cincy you'll come scrap with us, You'd have to spend the night cause Oklahoma is kind of far from cincy, so you can totally crash on my couch.

Ok something has needed to be addressed for a long time. I am lucky enough to work for a company that provides lots of perks for their employees. I nice cafeteria, gym, and the beloved C-store. I stop in the C-store every morning to pick up free hot water to make my chai with. Occasionally I might purchase a muffin, but for the most part just free water. But the once a week I do purchase a muffin or something, the women who works in the C-store doesn't hardly even look at me. I'll look at her all smiling like "hello I'm nice." or I'll even say good morning and I swear the women grunts at me. So, I was in there buying a muffin with a friend, and someone else comes in and purchases something and she's all nice, and even says something to the girl like you always have such a nice smile for me......and the grumpy women is all smiling and tells her to have a nice day. I go pay for my muffin or whatever, and she doesn't even speak to me.....what? Granted I often will pay for my small purchase with a 20 but that's no reason to hate a girl. I am convince she just don't like me. So it's my goal to just be abnormally really really nice. Maybe I'll make her some chai!

I am sure you all are tired of being switchfooted. Honestly I've been looking and I can't find anything good enough to replace it. Just hit stop as it starts. Feel free to make suggestions.

Love this photo of Perry at practice with his coach. Learning the defense slide. Is it crazy that I get all misty as I watch the boys catch on to things? I am so touched that Perry is completely clueless in regards to the actual game of basketball, he has no idea what offense and defense, doesn't even know what the heck he's suppose to be doing. Yet the coach just rolls with it and doesn't get frustrated at all. And Perry totally loves it. There will be much rejoicing the day he actually gets the ball in the basket.

Forgot to mention I am totally into Podcasts as of a few days ago. I have been listening to scrapcast, and it's actually halfway decent. Theres Podcasts for everything. The Naked Scientist is also a favorite, some of that one you have to weed through quite a bit of boring science stuff, but it can be quite amusing. It's from the BBC so their accents are too dang funny. Just go to itunes hit podcasts and explore.

Game #2

Well I know my blog fans are wondering about Perry 2nd basketball game. I am sad to say I missed it because of Alpha leadership training, however I was receiving text messages during the game as Christa was talking about leader roles (sorry Christa). I was so happy to find out the little man was on the court, and it appeared he was part of a game. Although he wasn't trying to get the ball or even paying attention to the ball, although he was guarding his man.....errrr.....following him around and talking to him. Apparently the man he was guarding was as clueless about the game as Perry was, excellant! I was super excited that he was even on the court. We got him some ear plugs, the super sticky kind you use for swimming. Those seemed to do the trick for 2 quarters. Then the buzzer got to be too much and he couldn't take it and he sat out. Babysteps. He got a star for most improved, how cool is that. Gotta love Upwards.

Ok I got a little motivated this afternoon, and purged a ginormous pile of magazines. We're talking a ton. Mostly scrappin mags, but theres a few idea books, and some Home Companions. If you are a blog reader and want these you can have them, as many as you like. They are mostly 2004, some 03, and 02 also, all varieties. You gotta be local cause I ain't mailing them, being realistic, I have little time to go to the post office, much less pack up stuff to send somewhere. So if you aren't local and you want them real bad you'll need to come and get them! Seriously it's a lot, I am thinking like 40-50....it could sustain you and your creative scrappin juices for a very long time. Now the true test is if anyone responds. Those celebrity scrappers out there post something like this and it's insanity, folks are all over it....I'll get nothing...bet!

The message at church was real good this week. It was on Anger.....no question I am a stuffer, and it's pretty much not healthy! I'll work on that. I'd encourage everyone to check it out Andy did a great job. The new worship leader is great, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I miss Robbie.

Why?

So we are broke! Stupid 2 car payments! It was his idea not mine, and now we are dang poor. So I had to go to GREAT CLIPS......UGH.....to get my wig busted. No pampering and hair love there. They try for the price, but it's just not the same as a nice slick salon do! So I took a picture of Donna Downey, I know, I know, I'm like some sort of scrapbooking celebrity groupie or something, but ha as if she'd ever read my blog and even know. But my hair has grown out quite a bit since it's been since August since I've gotten it cut, and I'm growing out my bangs....(why do we do these things?) So I figured this hair do was doable, and it's what I had pictured in my head. Plus she has the same glass's as me, so she has to be cool. (I so did not copy the glass's....I swear!) Hopefully I can work it in the morning myself cause right now it looks like they put a box on my head and cut around it, my head looks very square. Hopefully if she ever does read my blog she'll be flattered and not think I'm a dork. And no there will be no pictures, if I could wear a hat to work I would. Just look at the picture of Donna and pretend it's me.....

Heart Smart

You know you need to go to the grocery when you have an egg and cheese sandwich with a bowl of oatmeal for dinner. Can a person have too much fiber? I had a Kashi granola bar for breakfast, and then a huge bowl of oatmeal for dinner. I mean the Kashi only has 4 grams of fiber, but you can taste that it's fiber infused. Then well oatmeal, is all fiber....and YUMMY...not that instant crap, the real deal. With slivers of apple, cinamon and brown sugar. Ok so I don't feel over fibered, at least not yet, probably won't hit me till morning, I'll let you know if I blow out my colon or something.

So we are thinking ear plugs might do the trick for the basketball game this weekend. My only fear is that they'll fall out or he'll pull them out and play with them, or he just won't be able to hear anything. My hope is that they will buffer the noise enough that he'll relax, and at least pretend to be playing a basketball game. At least run around the court while someone guards him. I try to inforce no TV until homeworks done on a daily basis. Problem is my husband FORGETS on a daily basis. Hard to inforce some sort of structure when you are the only parent parenting.


This particular bag did not come with a warning to keep out of reach of children. Sometimes if theres a particular tuber or zot you need you should just put your whole head into the bad and you will have better success in finding what you need.

Why me?

Ok feeling rather pathetic and not so lucky right about now. I should feel lucky to have kid like Perry right? I mean he's not your average kid, he's funny, cute, charming witty, loving, and creative. But, to me on many day's he's EXHAUSTING. My friends who know me well will tell you I am the most patient person they know. I once waited patiently for 45 minutes for chicken wings at BW-3's only to find out they lost my order when I finally went and asked about it. And even then I didn't flip out I just waited another 20 minutes for my order. Very patient. Having a kid who never responds to you when you speak to him, I mean never, can be amazingly exhausting. Having a kid who is 8 and you can't just say go take a shower and he does.....wow....exhausting. Having a child you have to remind to take a bite of his food every 5 minutes, until you just give up and feed him so he can just go do whatever is more important than eating, unless he's eating a pop-tart......can make a girl a bit nutty. I am hoping in the long run that him participating in a team sport pays off in some way because right now it is hard to watch him practice. He has no idea what's going on. He doesn't look lost he falls into line when the coach tells him where he needs to be, however he hasn't any idea what he's doing. The first half of practice he was actually dribbling the ball and not slapping it, he was actually making a effort to shoot properly. The dribbling was huge, since I thought he'd never get it. But then something snapped halfway through practice. And he decided he needed to be clueless, they decided to play 4 on 4 at the end of practice and literally the kids were playing around him. The poor kid who had to guard him just guarded him where ever he was, which was not even in the game, he wasn't even looking at the ball. He was in some crazy cartoon Perryland.....which is where he is often. DRIVES ME INSANE. Ok this is my bad parent post of the month. I'm just keeping it real folks, it's hard being Perry's mom. Now onto something cute. Kids know him everywhere we go. In the neighborhood, he's quite the man on campus apparently, could be he's the only Perry in his whole school, and because of his attention issues, they probably hear his name a lot. But it's so cute to be at walgreens or Kroger and some kid with their mom will go "hey that's Perry...and they'll go hey Perry...and wave."

Guilty pleasure: The new Bachelor is hot....why do I watch this trash? I love watching desperate women fight over a hot doctor.

Highly Anticipated First Basketball Game.....

It's going to be a looooong season. 6 more games to go. It could take quite a few to build up his confidence level. It's the over sensitivity to loud scary noises. It's the fire drill at school, and now it's the dreaded BUZZER. It's not even the noise of people being loud in the gym, it's just the anticipation of the buzzer that lasts about 2 seconds. He heard it before the game. And instantly he was concerned. Before the buzzer anxiety he was anxious to get out there and play. Once he was aware there was a buzzer, it was over, participation wasn't going to happen. The coaches were amazing. They didn't give up. Each quarter they'd try to play him, and he'd be on the court for about 5 seconds and it was obvious the hands weren't going to come off the ears, and he'd sit back down. The cool thing was, when this sort of thing happens and you feel like you are the only parent in the world who has a kid with wierd issues, God plants someone to help you not feel so alone. The women in front of me asked if Perry was my son who was afraid of the buzzer, and I said yes. She said her son was the same way for a long time and she couldn't get him to participate because he was afraid of the buzzer. Even when he came in today, he heard the buzzer and looked at her with fear. But then I watched him, he played and played well, with his eye on the clock. After a year of basketball, he figured out at what point the buzzer would go off, and it wasn't until it got about 10 seconds away the anxiety would hit, and he'd look a bit scared with his hands close to his ears, and then it would go off, and even then he wouldn't put his hands over his ears. It was just the anticipation of the buzzer, kind of like a balloon being popped. Perry's hands were planted over his ears tightly, the whole game. So hopefully Perry can figure out the timing of the buzzer and get out there and play. If anyone has any advice how to take good pictures in a gym, like what setting do I put my camera on, I'd really like some help. Anytime I take pictures in a gym, they are always crap.

Just one of those Days!

Where you don't wanna get up. That was me today. Felt like bleh, so put Perry on the bus, called in and went back to bed. Call it a listen to your body day. I slept in, can't say it felt good, seems I felt worse and more depressed cause I stayed in bed all morning. Went to lunch with my husband, and still felt just bleh, not all that barfy sick, just depressed I guess, maybe the "mean reds". Could be after the holidays blues, or lack of a spiritual connection. It seems to get like that when there's an Alpha break, or I don't connect with my church peeps. Trying to pull together a womens small group so maybe if I pull this one off I'll have more of a constant spiritual accountability built in. Seems like a simple enough concept. Hopefully I can make it happen.
Mr. Foreman has good teeth, and good hair. How fun would it be to throw some newspaper on the floor and rock out? Whose with me?

Hard to choose!

Man having a kid involved in 2 things creates some kind of crazy business. Not to mention Alpha starts in a few weeks, which adds even more to the craziness. I refuse to give up what I like to do , I need balance. Gotta have some me time. Tree needs to come down very soon, I can't stand looking at it another second, but I can't stand taking it down either. Geez I need a life assistant. Something funny....U2 OMG...too funny....and even funnier....Green Day!

Adventures of the Wee Gnome

Biggs
Originally uploaded by Yoda0419.

That's right he's been grocery shopping. I went to Biggs after scrappin at Archivers with my peeps to get food for New Years Eve festivities, and ended up doing full blown grocery shopping at Biggs at like 12:30 am.....good times. Nobody was there had the whole place to myself, excellant.

Do you know people who just say ridiculous things to you not even knowing how idiotic they sound? Not just once or twice but almost everytime you speak to them? And no matter how you present it to them that they sound ridicuolous, they just don't get it? Am I just over sensitive? Do I just pick apart what people are saying to me and over process it to be just plain ignorant, and insensitive? Or do other people have people in their lives that do this to them? Most recently I've avoided interaction with these people. Is this the right thing to do? Ahhh who knows, I just know dealing with this crap is more trouble than it's worth. Or I could just be rambling because it's after midnight and I should be going to bed. Click on the Wee Gnome to see where else he's been.

Oh and say hello to Mr. John Foreman....it's been a while.....consider yourself SWITCHFOOTED!

What about me?

So I was reading Heathers blog, as I do daily cause she is dang funny and inspirational to me and life in general. And there she is in Glamour magazine. How cool is that, for blogging no doubt, and she's got the article lead photo, so cool. So then all the sudden I am purchasing Glamour magazine, while picking up Perry's concerta, which went up $5, yowza. What once was costing $9, is now $35.....ahhhh....worth ever penny in my opinion to not have a child climbing the walls and able to maintain a decent level of noise while medicated. But good lord that's pricey.
It was baptism weekend, oops, Ron doesn't go to church on baptism weekend. Apparently being previously catholic (is that what you call it? since he no longer attends mass, but hasn't said "I'm not catholic.) the whole thing with the people being dunked freaks him out, makes him uncomfortable, whatever, I guess he invisions some overly happy vineyard Christian, Jesus freak person grabbing him and submerging him in the water proclaiming that he is now clean. Ha wish it happened that way cause that would be highly entertaining. I look forward to the day he understands what exactly is going on and would even welcome the possibility to show an outward sign that he has chosen to live a life for God. Not saying that he hasn't, but that's what baptism is, merely a symbol saying I've chosen to walk with Jesus and wish to be cleansed, so you go into the water a sinner, and come up out of the water, forgiven and cleansed. Cool....I've been sprinkled as a baby, but would consider being dunked someday. Not saying the first baptism didn't "work", but saying I'd like to make the decsion for myself to me symbolic, and embrace the life I've chosen to live.
Funny, Discoveryland (sunday school) teachers take the kids into "big church" when the baptisms are happening, and Perry mentioned that they had watched. I questioned him to see what he thought. I said what were the getting baptized for? He said " I think it's cause they were dirty, and they needed to take a bath, they should have a shower too, it'd be easier, then they could call it Showerized. They need a shower in that big bathtube." Ha, funny I'll make that suggestion to the VCC staff. As he was getting into the car, I told him the actual reason and said they were being baptized to wash away their sins, and he said "or to wash away their smelly's." Ha!