Tiny Baby Jesus

In honor of starting Reset this week. They played this clip at church this sunday so I had to share it here on my blog because I'm pretty sure it's in my top 10 of funniest clips of all time!

Pinewood Derby 09

Pinewood Derby 09
Originally uploaded by Yoda0419

I was attempting to post this to the packs blog and somehow it ended up here like 4 times. Plus I wanted it to be bigger, dang. I think if you click on the mosaic it will take you to flickr, which then you will get to see all t he picture in their original form.

Girlfriend

I am a guest blogger over at my friend Michelle's Blog today. She is celebrating life for the whole month of February. So she gave me a word...and the word is GIRLFRIEND. Which has always been a bizzarre word to me. I can remember as a teenager my mother referring to her friends as her girlfriends, which I thought was rather wierd, so I've never liked the word and I rarely would use it. Even when I became a girlfriend, I would never refer to myself as a girlfriend, I was "his squeeze" and he was "my squeeze".......ha, now writing it down or saying it outloud, that's kind of funny. I really wanted to write something more meaningful for Michelles blog, but what you see above is what I came up with on my own.....lame I know so thank God for the author below in the video, her elegant essay about "Girlfriends" is far more meaningful than what I could ever write when referring to my girlfriends. I mean every word of what she's about to say! I could say the same thing about my friends, but she puts the words so much better than I.



Much love to all my peeps......(see I still can't use the word girlfriend)
My milestone birthday is coming up, in March I will be 40 prepare to celebrate the whole month!

I am that Mom!

Being the mother of a child with special needs is rarely easy. Rewarding beyond anything you can imagine, but never easy. There have been times I've felt very alone, and as though no one could possibly relate to how I feel. Perry was diagnosed a little over 2 years ago with a language based learning disability. Dislexia falls in this catagory, but he doesn't have that. Some would just like to say he's autistic, but he's not that either. People like labels they understand, unfortunately when it comes to a kid with a learning disability there may not always be a label most would understand. Every kid is different, and kids with special needs they are all different.


This movie is the closest thing to explaining how Perry is that I could ever come close to. It's all about finding that one person, in this case it's a teacher. Who gets it! Who knows that all kids are different and a kid with special needs doesn't learn like every other kid. Oh if teachers could just tailor the curriculum to fit each individual, the world would be a better place. It's safe to say this movie is probably my most favorite movie ever! Click the poster above it'll take you to the website.

50 Odd things About You.....

Swiped this from Monica on Facebook, you can do it there too...just thought I'd blog it, have fun!
50 ODD Things about you! If you opened this, FILL IT OUT! Learn 50 things about your friends, and let them learn 50 things about you!
1) Favorite hobby? Rubber Stamping, collecting rubber stamps, paper art, scrapbooking, camping...none of which I ever get to do!
2) Have you ever smoked heroin? You smoke it? Didn't know, so I guess I've never done it!
3) Do you own guns? I myself do not but theres one in my home with some crazy lock on it that if we needed to use it in a hurry we'd get killed while they waited for us to unlock it.
4) What flavor do you add to your drink at sonic? I like a Watermelon or Cherry Slushy and The banana shake is super yummy.
5) Do you get nervous before doctors apts? Yes if I know a needle is involved.
6) What do you think of hot dogs? I think they are tasty when they are all beef.
7) Favorite Christmas song? Hippo Song and Silent Night by OTR
8) What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Coffee or Water
9) Can you do push ups? Maybe one
10) Can you do a chin up? Maybe one
11) What's your favorite piece of jewelry? small dangly earrings, and celtic everlasting friendship right
12) Do you like blue cheese? The kind at Buffalo Wings and Rings is the best
.13) Ever been in a car wreck?A couple minor fender benders.
14) Do you have ADD? It's very possible, but I'm not admitting it.
15) What's one trait that you hate about yourself? Takes me a while to speak up for myself.
16) Middle name? Joelle
17) Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment: The cake is done, I should be scrapping, I should be doing laundry.
19) Name 3 drinks you regularly drink: Water, Sweet Tea, and Coffee
20) Current worry? That I am going to owe taxes barf
21) Current hate right now? Shady people, Unappreciative people, the weather
23) How did you bring in the New Year? at home with the fam.
24) Where would you like to be right now? Gonna copy Monica on one of these Garbage Dumps in Mexico City, At the beach or camping in the Mountains
25) Name three people who will complete this? Michelle, Layni cause she needs a reason to blog (slacker), Kathryn (you can do it on facebook as a note, it's how it started)
26) Do you own slippers? Yes they are bunny slippers.
27) What shirt are you wearing? Favorite Red Hoodie
28) Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Too slippery
29) Can you whistle? Yes, and even an entire song.
31) Would you be a pirate? Sure
32) What songs do you sing in the shower? Whatever songs in my head
33) Favorite girl's name?Grace
34) Favorite boy's name? Perry
35) What's in your pocket? Lint
36) Last thing that made you laugh? I just made Brass Monkey my ringtone
37) Best bed sheets as a child? Linus and Snoopy, loved that pillowcase.
38) Worst injury you've ever had? a cut finger, I know lame but I've been fortunate, child birth is the worst pain I've ever been through.
39) Do you love where you live? It works, but wouldn't mind somewhere else.
41) Who is your loudest friend? Alex but I haven't seen her in years, so now it'd have to be Kristi....hee hee...
42) How many dogs do you have? 2
43) Does someone have a crush on you? My husband
45) What is your favorite book? Walking on Water- Reflection on faith and art by Madeleine L'Engle
46) What is your favorite candy? CHOCOLATE and gummy bears
47) Favorite Sports Team? Don't have one
48) What song do you want played at your funeral? You are my Hiding place
49) What were you doing 12 AM last night? Chatting with Abby on Facebook
50) What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up today? Crap I'm running late.

Such Fond Memories...I hope to never forget!

I wish I had pictures for this post. I do have pictures but my PC is so slow scanning them and uploading them would be a nightmare. So you'll just have to picture it. I went to a funeral today of a friend of the family. I never knew this women as an adult. I'd see her at church almost every sunday for years and years. She was a friend of the family from my old neighborhood, where I lived until I was 8 years old. The old neighborhood was Brampton Drive.....whenever I even think of he name of the street it stirs up amazing memories, of families that hung out together all the time. Where we kids played outside constantly. We played kickball in the street all the time and no one ever got ran over.

Memories of my friend Mark and I playing with ants in a puddle, yes that was in the street too. I remember playing in Marks backyard at the top of the hill and jumping the fence to Tony's house. Or Tony jumping the fence to go to Marks. I remember Tony once tricked me into trading a canadian dollar I had from my trip to Niagra Falls for a bag of pretzels. Ha....crazy stuff I remember. I remember never wanting to play in Tracy's back yard cause she had too much dog poop and I'd always step in it. I remember mom's screaming out the door when it was time to come home. One particular mom who had 8 kids she'd scream and yell trying to get them to come home and she'd always say cuss words. Those were the Kidd Kids, and they were bad, one of them once gave me 2 black eyes, I'm pretty sure my dad almost killed him....his name was Roy, their mom's name was Ruby, and my mom would always threaten that if I was bad, I'd have to go live with Ruby. Heck she had so many kids she probably wouldn't even notice.
It was a nice funeral today, Judy's daughter Amy called it a life celebration, quite fitting. It stirred up a time and a place from over 30 years ago, saddly it seems life can never be like that again, the world is such a different place. Pray for the Uhl family they lost their mom.....I'm sure she's looking down on them from heaven.

Christmas, Cancer, and the New Year

Oh I have been a straight up blog slacker! I'd like to do as my cousin did and blame Facebook. I can also blame my mother who went into the emergency room a month ago with a kidney stone, and in a matter of days she was having emergency surgery to remove a tumor from her bladder....which was cancer. For the record no offense to anyone who might know him, her surgeon was an ASSclown!!! Who drops the C bomb on ones family like it's no big deal and then walks out of the room with no clarification??? Which is what he did right after the surgery that was suppose to take 2 hours and took 5 instead. So she was in the hospital way too long and then from there went to Shroder Manor a nursing home so she could continue her recovery. She came home on Christmas Eve.

Funny little thing happened when I went to pick my mom up. I was loading her stuff into my trunk. I went to step up on the curb, and didn't quite lift my foot enough, and tripped and fell directly on my face....face did not hit the pavement since ones instinct is to put out arms so the palms of my hands is what hit the pavement....but not for long cause I jumped right up. I was down long enough for the caroling Geri's to catch a glimps of me on the ground, which I'm sure was enjoyable. OUCH!

We had a good Christmas. My cousins house on Christmas Eve was wierd since this is the first christmas without Rachel. There was just an underlying sadness, but it was good to be with family. The Christmas cards were light this year, didn't get as many as I have in the past.

This past year I feel like I did a whole lot of stuff, and didn't really do anything as good as I could have. As in I was spreading myself way too thin. I hope in the coming year to find one thing to volunteer for and do it well. I really want to find something God wants me to do, and to give it my all.....cause lets be real I got some skills in something, and I'm sure God can use those skills somewhere. (something other than scouts....just a hint God....just saying I don't think that's it.....)

Cute kids from my christmas Party. Patiently waiting to open their presents.

Another more disasterous attempt at a Gingerbread House. The kids were tired, and I was tired and slap happy maybe a bit tipsy as well. A more serious attempt will be made next year!
Thank You Santa for arming my child, and my husband with Nerf ammo. No animal, stuffed or live is safe in our home.

And I present to you a Christmas Princess!

Fun with Sugar

This here is photo's from our Gingerbread House making adventure. Not a whole lot of planning went into this. We are proud of our structure, however we have some stiff professional looking competition, and we are going to require sympathy votes to win. So all of you blog viewers need to go to IKEA starting Monday and vote for our house....the one with the blue roof....the one that may appear to be falling down. We win a pizza party for our department....CUSTOMER SERVICE....and the best part recognition. Thanks for all your votes we'll need it....oh and buy some furniture while you are there.


1. Builders, 2. Customer Service, 3. Delapidated structure, 4. Pretty sure we were drunk!, 5. People who didn't make the cut...and got eaten, 6. The couch looked good until we saw the competition!, 7. Adding more goo, 8. DSCN0060, 9. DSCN0059, 10. Seriously we were wasted, 11. Hee...., 12. Nice touch, 13. Store manager.., 14. We rock, 15. What we had to work with, 16. DSCN0044, 17. DSCN0045, 18. DSCN0047, 19. Stuff from Bistro...this ain't ours!, 20. Competition

First Video

Ok got a new camera, and I recorded this video, of my precious angel!

It gets a little scary at the end so be prepared. I had to delete the funny funny IKEA video because I couldn't take it off of autoplay and it was annoying me.

What up People?

One must use the turkey picture when we are just days away from the big day. I think this picture will now be a thanksgiving tradition. This year it got transformed into facebook flair. And now that it's on the blog it can be swiped and used all over the internet. Remember who the artist is when he is famous!

Geez, I've not posted in sometime now. I am sure a lot has happened since the last I posted. Obama was elected, not because I voted for him but because apparently a lot of people were closet Obama fans?? We'll see what the next 4 year brings. It's kind of cool that an African American is going to be president, show there is hope for the world and we can change. Now if he "F's" things up then I'll say I told ya so!!

Dude I am straight up reading books.....that's right I said BOOKS. I finished that one book I was reading about that dude from Korn, it wasn't too bad, but then I read The Shack.....holy crap, that book was the bomb. Life changing kind of book that everyone should read. And if you've been knowing me for sometime you know since the birth of my child I've not been much of a reader. I only recently started again for fear of Alzheimers and my brain turning to mush. Just before I was done with The Shack, I picked up Twilight, mainly because the world was talking about it and saw the amount of pages in that thing and knew it would end up on the shelf amongst all my other pretty books that are just for show. However I started it a week ago, and I'm already 250 pages in, no lie. There is something intriguing about high school kids and vampires??? I mean seriously everytime I pick it up it sucks me in. And I think geez where is this going surely at some point I'm going to lose interest and stop reading like I always do. So far that hasn't happened. We'll see if I make it through all 4 books. I need to go read now. Happy Thanksgiving!

Glad that's over.....

Seriously this whole election process has been a total blast. I could do without the political commercials, and the political junkmail (seriously people save a tree!), oh and the political phone calls....geez, seriously 8 out of 10 messages, is that necessary??

Heres somethings I loved.....

The fun back and forth I had with some of my coworkers. The best of all was my african american friend. We were texting each other all night last night as the results were coming it. I love how she respected my position and where I was coming from and I respected her and through it all we still love each other. I love sharing in racial humor with people who know me well enough that I don't and never will see color. She had fun with me today, and gave me a picture of a Donkey that said Democrat, and told me to color it, I put a big red circle around it with a line through it.

Something else that was fun, trying to explain to Perry why I vote the way I did....AKA....brainwashing your child. I used the halloween candy analogy, which he totally got. Told him he'd have to share his candy with the kids, who didn't necessarily want to go trick or treating. To which he carried it over to his toys and his money. And he even went so far as to say "I don't mind sharing with my family and friends, or even people I know might need it, but I don't have enough stuff to share with everybody. " I am all about helping out the poor, but we all know that's not what ends up happening.

Something not so fun...the Abortion issue and the War. I'm not comfortable with what may go down with those two issues. Ultimately God is in control.
History was made and it was pretty cool to watch. Little bit mad at Oprah but whatever, I was mad at her before the election. It's just an election, don't be mad at me when ya'll are standing in line for medical care, just sayin.....love you all regardless of how you voted.

2 More Weeks....

So I've not been involved in the politcal craziness other than attending the McCain/Palin Rally a month ago, and being informed enough to know where I stand. But no matter which side of the fence you are on this is a super cool time to be alive. It could just be my age and to be able to see where our country has come from and where we are right now.

Just the possibility that a women could have been president. And now the very real possibility that a women just might be vice President, is amazing. The fact that it wasn't too long ago that a women wasn't even allowed to vote. Not to mention the idea that an African American could be president, that also is way cool!! They too weren't even allowed to vote not too long ago. Say what you want about whomever, the whole process is interesting to watch. I just hope my candidate wins, I am doing some serious praying about that, I'm slightly scared of it going the other way, and if it does, I am sure God has a reason, and we'll all be ok.

Why I'm Voting Republican!

It really doesn't take much more than this to impress me or get my vote.

No Seriously, I'm not playin' God is Awesome!!!

Ok so I've been praying everyday for God to not allow anything to steal the joy I feel from my after prom buzz. So maybe if I just keep posting stuff about it until the next time we get to do it again, I will never ever lose that joy.


Seriously people, my junior prom, the one where I got fixed up with some hoodlum that was friends with my neighbors, and God forbid I go to prom without a date. Dude drank beer (gasp, I was a good christian girl for real people) in the car all the way there, didn't even offer me any.....such the gentleman! Yeah this prom, a bajillion times better. Then there was my senior prom, and the boy I had a major crush on, although we were just friends, asked me to prom, "if we both weren't attached at the time." Then he got attached to a girl he knew he'd get a booty call from.....cause it wasn't going to be me. Then another one of my guy friends said he'd go with me and we'd have a blast, yeah that boy decided he'd rather spend his money on golf clubs......I've never let him live that one down, I've even told his wife that one!!! He's not changed apparently. So I ended up going stag, and had a blast!!! But not near as much fun as I did at this Prom no way not even close!!!!

Get some tissues before you watch this one!


So big shout out to Harmony, for once again making me cry in church, lets be real folks I've been a hot mess since prom ended. Most importantly thanks to Harmony for sharing her dream and allowing us to be a part of making it a reality. That night was a night I will never forget!!!

Overwhelmed by God

So I'm out here experiencing life. Just living like I always do. Being completely crazy busy, and pretty sure I can not fit another thing in my life. Being the wife of a scouter and a scouter myself to some degree leaves little room for much anything else.

Well then there was this little thing some peeps of mine started talking about. Pretty much non-stop they talked about this....Prom.....a to do they began planning at the beginning of the year, possibly before. Not just any prom, a Prom for special needs adults. This is when I heard the needle on the record scratch. Why? Well because I do have gifts in some areas of life. Special needs folks is not one of my gifts. Think of me as a horrible person if you will but it gets better I promise. Plain and simple I don't like unpredictable. I like to have some idea of what's going to happen next. With special needs folks you don't get that luxury. Ok whatever I got issues. Plus I had a cousin with special needs growing up and, he scared the crap out of me on more than one occasion, one of which was when he tried to drown me....so I got issues. So then the peeps, talk, and talk, and talk about prom. And when my church does things, they can't do anything small, so therefor they need help when they do things because it requires half a city of volunteers to pull things off. So I jump on board making it clear I should not be in direct contact with any special needs folks since I don't have those skills. So I help sort dress's, that was safe and fun. Oh and don't worry a thousand dress's at least were donated. Well then I had to be involved in the actual event. Again with the half a city needed to volunteer, so I sign up for Volunteer check in.....volunteers are not the ones with special needs, again I'm safe. Well then 800 special needs folks show'd up, expecting 600, I was officially out numbered....therefor was forced to interact with them.

This lady kept talking about her parents were looking down from heaven and smiling.
Soooooo......I'm here to tell you, not only did I survive, it's quite possible I'm a changed person. I don't see me volunteering at a group home anytime soon, however, I am certain the next time I see a special needs person at the grocery store or at church, I won't look away as if I don't see them in hopes that someone else will speak to them, I may say "Hi..." possibly even more then that, I will probably ask them how they are doing, what's their name......or what they did last night.

Having the good fortune to have attended the Vineyard for over 18 years I've experienced more than my fair share of HG moments. This by far was the absolute best. Everytime I even allow myself to think about how happy these people were just doing something most people get to experience in their lifetimes, often more than once, I cry. When Dave mentioned that we truly lived out this verse......"Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." ~Matthew 14:12-14 Seriously I fell the heck apart. That is it! We did exactly that, and it was the most amazing thing I've been involved in, thanks friends for nudging me to be involved. This was no luncheon my friends this was a full on Banquet!

Everyone walked the redcarpet, complete with paparrazzi.

I recruited some of my peeps to help out. Layni and Ashton went and helped folks pick out dress's the weekend before.

ETA: Go Here and fast forward to 53.28, and here how the prom went. You're sure to cry.

Cub Scout MADNESS

Ok so they say....(not sure who they are, but I'm sure they're experts) that those people who are the busiest make the best most organized leaders. Hello Sarah Palin, future Vice President. Oh and Hello Jodi, future cub scout leader BURN OUT. Not sure who it was that told me it would be a good idea for me to not only be the committee chair (my fulltime volunteer job, in charge of doing all that other stuff no one else is doing), do school night (apparently part of the committee chairs job), Cub-O-Ree sign ups, (I said yes to that too???), oh and then throw in Peterloon sign ups....ok did I mention all of this stuff happens ALL AT THE SAME DAMN TIME. Thank goodness Cyndi's doing Spookeree sign ups. And if you see "they" you know those experts, let them know I get what they are saying, but I'd like to know if they have any advice or leads on how one goes about cloning themselves, them being experts and all that would be some helpful info!

Who Turned off The Lights???

Mother Nature that's who! It's safe to say 48 hours is way too damn long to be without power. My hair can officially not be pretty without a blow dryer. Preferably I need a blow dryer and a flat iron but can make due with just the blow dryer. For those 48 hours I had neither. The good news is IKEA was kind enough to hook us up with official IKEA west chester hats a few weeks ago so I was able to hide away the fly away nonsense that is my hair if left to air dry.

So Sunday afternoon, Ron was out of town participating in Woodbadge, don't ask people you would not even begin to understand. Lets just say the man is in leadership heaven, and it's good he's found his niche in life. So while he's camping out with other woodbadgers (it's an actual name trust me on this one) P and I are enjoying lunch after church at Steak and Shake. It was slightly more windy than usual but nothing crazy yet. We had to Costco to purchase large quantities of frozen veggies, and our must have gallon and a half of organic milk. We inevitably ended up with other things that we had to have. We head to the car to fill the trunk with our buy in bulk goodness, as I step my foot into the parking lot, not only is it much more windy than usual it is pick you body up off the ground windy....what the heck is going on? Clearly it's the end of the world. Perry freaked the heck out by the wind that was trying to blow him away gets in the car with the quickness, as I am attempting to get the crap in the trunk, as I am putting the stuff int he truck closes on me....as in half my body was inside the truck....um....did anyone get this on tape? Kid completely oblivious to the fact that the person who gave him life has just been crushed by the trunk.....not to worry I got it off me, thank God I'm meatier than your average middle aged women. And proceeded with the task at hand, getting the crap in the trunk and me in the car before I lost my lovely life. I get in only to witness a girl (teenager with mother) who had a plastic bag of something possibly bell peppers, she was holding tight to the plastic bag and within seconds whatever was in it blew directly out of the bag and vanished...gone...she still had the bag, whatever was in it was now gone!

We had no trouble getting home but when we got there, it was a sea of distruction. I had to clear the driveway of ginormous tree limbs to get in the driveway. And when we got inside there was no power.....keep in mind I have a trunk full of frozen bulk happiness. We suffered through with no power for 24 hours heading into day 2 we took our food to moms who still had power. We didn't lose much. She cooked anything that appeared to be thawed, so it was all good and we have a ton of leftovers for our lunches the next few days. The goodness is that during BLACKOUT CINCINNATI 2008, IKEA remained open even though we were on partial power provided by a generator. So even if you couldn't watch TV at your home you could go to IKEA and buy a sofa. And they made some pretty decent sales with no power. And I got a lot of work done since I was hidden away at a different desk since my computer wasn't working and no one could find me. Woohoo to now power it was fun, but I'm glad to be back to business as usual.

I SAID CRAZY!

The previous blog, that was only a glimpse of things to come. Dooce, always says not to talk about work on your blog, however it's completely unavoidable since PEOPLE ARE CRAZY!

Raise your hand if you know where I work.....ok most....
Raise your hand if you know YOU GOTTA BUILD THAT SHIT.....yep all of you.
Someone neglected to tell the women who ended up on my phone on Tuesday evening. Somehow, no offense people, she thought because she was in a wheel chair her furniture once she set it up for home delivery, those flatpacked boxes would arrive at her home, as built pieces of furniture. WHAT? As in she was holding the delivery guy hostage at her house because he brought her boxes of flatpacked furniture as she requested. As in dude was unable to leave because she was yelling at him and me (I was on the phone).

Couple helpful tips. If you require a wheel chair, I'd suggest not coming to my place of employment unless you are going in to buy a skillet and then leave. Or if you have a willing servant to push you around the entire time. Don't come if you think that, the couch you see in the showroom will arrive at your home looking just like that, cause it doesn't. You gotta put that shit together. As in put the legs on, and put the cover on. It's called, You do a little, we do a little and together we save alot. If you want assembled furniture to arrive at your house, go to value city and be in debt for the rest of your life. PSA......ends here....don't make me bring it up again!

My life is Crazy

Plain and simple. It's the beginning of the school year. IKEA is coming out of the tail end of their busy season, my first to experience this and seriously people it was CRAZY. I was all over the place for the nonsense, but it was a good organized (somewhat) crazy. Our job has suffered since we were helping with the madness we couldn't address the madness that was going on behind the scenes, as in crazy angry people ringing our phones off the hook and we weren't there because we were dealing with in your face kind of craziness. So now we are dealing with the aftermath of lunatics who've been waiting for hardware for 2 weeks, it's all good people we'll get you your screws! So since I am unable to articulate an intelligent sentence and I am gearing up to recruit some Cub Scouts (go me)hopefully all of which will have super parents who are ready to carry a pack for 4 years, cause this white girls flying the coup in February....don't even ask me to stay, I'm out!....ok so the articulate an intelligent sentence part, yeah that ain't happening. So what I have for you is this......
CAUSE PUNK ROCK RULES!

I have to give Ron credit for finding these boys but all of their songs are awesome!

Nobama!

Thanks to my friend Ginger for finding this. It's nice to have all the nonsense accumulated into one video. I hate politics, hate it. I hate having to formulate an educated response as to why I vote. I'd just assume to get on with the business of living, and not think about it. But alas one has to make a decision.


Well it's perfectly clear. Ok Ok Ok....promise not another word on politics until after the first of the year promise.