An Oriole on the feeder in my parents' backyard

Our friendly face tree

A bee on my bleeding hearts, I almost had a better pic of him and then he decided to buzz around my head and I was outta there!

Blossoms on our crab apple (I think that's what it is) tree

Teddy and Casey

Teddy posing for the camera. Don't ya just love the color of the carpet?! It's in the process of being torn out.

Glass on the ground from my back window

My poor car with no back window

Glass still attatched to the wiring for the rear defroster

Glass still attatched to the wires for the rear defroster

The handle left on the window

Glass in the car seat that was in the hatch. It was a mess!

Glass in the hatch of my car.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!!!!

Congratulations to Erin, Tom & big brother Ben over at Tale of a Baby Human and Tale of a Baby Human Too!!! Baby Simon was born yesterday! Happy Birthday little one!

Well, despite a bit of frustration with an off day with kids, nothing major, kids just have those days at times......today has been a good day.
I talked with our insurance agency and they got things as setteled as they could and even got in touch with the mobile glass company for us. I may just have to write them a letter and tell them how pleased I am with their service! We have Progressive Insurance, a local insurance agency shops around for the best rates for you, and you can contact them if you have a claim or make your payments. I am thrilled with their service! The girl that I talked to was so nice, and made it alot easier, I was a bit nervous dealing with them since we really don't know whata happened, but they were wonderful!
Haven't accomplished a whole lot otherwise. I did empty and reload the dishwasher, burned copies of pictures I had taken at Awana for one girl for her mural of pictures for graduation, did a load of laundry, and gotten some stitching done. I am working on Tinkerbell now. I should be working on my brother in law's wedding record but I am feeling burnt out on that one and I got a start on Tinkerbell on our road trip to Des Moines for basketball games Saturday and it is going pretty fast. I am getting excited about seeing a finish soon!
Well, I want to go out and get some pics of my flowers outside before we have to go to the Awana Leader's Meeting and Prayer Meeting tonight!
Big hugs!

You know, I was all set to come back here and give you all a post about how I know I had done alot of complaining and how things were beginning to go so well, and I was beginning to feel more confident and loved, and how I was so happy that I had found some wonderful, true friends that made me feel more like family and the great weekend we had with them when K came in to tell me that I wouldn't want to take my car to my piano lessons this afternoon. Of course, being confused, I asked why and was told that my back window had been broken out. It happened between 2:45 when he came home and 4 when he left with my Mom to do the paper route. Joy. I took some pics after the police officer came (on the advice of my insurance agency) no one could find a rock or anything that had gone through the window. We don't know what happened really. So, I'm bummed, but you know it could be worse. It could have happened when we were in Des Moines going 80 on the freeway and we had two passengers in the backseat, or when I was driving kids somewhere, or it could have been more damaged and impossible to drive, I could have had a deer come through the window and hit me, I could have rolled the car, someone could have been seriously hurt with all that glass. I am just thankful that it was just the window. Of course it has a handle being the back window and the defrost, and shocks on it, and will probably be and expensive one, but it's just money. I hate to think about what could have been with something like that. I did have a very good friend happen to stop over as I was taking pictures and it was a comfort to have him there since K was still out on the paper route and I was a tad shaken over it all, and he again proved himself to be a true friend in making sure that everything was taken care of and offered tarps to cover the back window opening, shop vac to clean it up, a vehicle to get me to my piano lesson on time, and the use of their garage if it could not be covered. I also feel very safe knowing that I have people
looking out for me between him and his oldest son who found K on the paper route and told him that there was a police officer out in the back of his house.
Also on a somewhat unrelated note, in this same family, my friend's daughter in law didn't have to weork a full day today so she ended up taking their van in for repairs on the antilock brakes ( a little over $200 later) she had some time to kill and was shopping at the mall and bought me a tshirt from a sale at the Disney Store! I LOVE Disney! Tigger is my absolute favorite, but I LOVE Disney! She bought me a pink Eeyore shirt that says Eeyore's Spring time Blues. I wore it to the band concert we went to tonight.
I need to run now, but I will give you my fuzzy feel good post that I planned to write earlier, as well as pics of my car, my new shirt, and some of my flowers in the yard (you've given me the itch to go out and get some of those pics, Holli!) and probably some other miscellaneous things thrown in for good measure.

I have to be very picky about the shoes I wear now and make sure I have enough arch support, especially if I am going to be doing alot of standing or walking. These are wonderful for me! I LOVE them! I may even go back and buy another pair!

Please, say a prayer for Holli's Mom aka Nana from Baby Faith. She is having surgery today and Holli has talked of cancer in an update on her blog. Please keep this family in your prayers.

Where is Spring??? Yesterday we got snow!! I posted some pictures in my Flickr, I added the date stamp on them because K and I both thought we would never believe it looking at them a few years down the road! It cancelled school because the roads were so bad and the visibilityd wasn't very good. This meant that it also cancelled Awana. So much for our time trials for the Grand Prix. I guess we are going to start an hour earlier to get all the bugs out of the kids cars and make sure they are all running well. I just pray that things go smoothly. I also posted a few pics of the church in preparation for the race on Saturday.
We had a good Easter. We had dinner with my family on Saturday. My brother had to come up for a wedding Fridy night and then was heading back home on Sunday so everyone headed to Mom and Dad's for dinner on Saturday. Sunday we went to PM and C's house for dinner. They had a FULL house! I think there was about 25 of us for dinner! It was alot of fun! The kids had an egg hunt, there was bocce ball for the men, a camp fire in the back yard, and even some sparklers and bottle rockets! We had two guys that were formerly at the Mission in town and they gave their testimonies after dinner. Wow! These guys came from drugs, gangs, jail, and now they are living for the Lord clean and sober. It was so inspiring to hear their stories.
Today is a quiet day. Just me and Monster. Miss A was supposed to come while her Mom helped out at the school, but they had a two hour late start so they don't need her to go in after all. Ahh well, maybe I will get a nap when Monster does now.
I am in the middle of laundry and hope to clean the house sometime today yet too. I need to get Sunday School done, and I haven't heard anything about powerpoint from PM yet either......it will all get done, it's just no fun going over the list in my head, it keeps getting longer lol!
Smile, God loves you and so do I!


PS Holli.....get well soon!

I don't know how many times now I have actually started a post and never gotten it completely finished and posted for one reason or another! Not that there has been a whole lot going on here worth posting, I mean you can only read so many times about how we went to another basketball game or about me complaining about something about daycare (which you may have to endure later in this post yet) or about how we will have practice for choruses on Sunday blah blah blah. Writers block I guess.
I haven't been in the best of moods either, one of the daycare families was just really irking me. They had started showing up late again, and not just a few minutes, but like a half hour to an hour. And not only after my closing time but Mom would tell me that she would be off at one so don't let the Monster nap. Fine. But when she doesn't show up until two and the Monster is uber cranky and not listening and making it hard for the others to nap is when I start having a problem, and not just once in one week but twice and no phone call to let me know I mean come on. We're talking common courtesy here. And she just walks in and says, oh I ended up working longer, you know how that is. She works at the daycare center where I used to work, so yes, I do understand how unorganized they are up there and how it depends on counts, but is it fair to leave me hanging because of it.
I also started noticing just how far behind Monster is developmentally. I think that there is a hearing problem or something, but Mom refuses to have her tested. The county would test her for free, but nooooo. Maybe this summer. She is preschool age in the fall and do you know how far behind she is going to be by the time she actually gets help? Not only that but I know how cruel kids can really be, and why expose her to that if it's not needed. Why not get her the help and get her caught up now before she is thrown into a school situation and completely overwhelmed? I brought this up in a daycare group I am a member of online and was reprimaned saying that these things are taught and how if I really and truly worked with the parents that I could get her caught up and it wouldn't be a problem and how my considering terming them because of their lateness and refusal to help their child was just silly.
Well, that's all well and good if the parents were willing to open their eyes and find their child some help. Mom's ignoring the problem is not helping me any. I can only do so much here, and if I have the baby for a full day it is less than normal because he takes alot of my time too, and there are the other 2 two year olds, two 4 year olds, the 3 year old, and the 1 year old who are here depending on the day as well. Just how much time am I to devote to her and ignore the others?!
On top of that there are her behavior issues that I am having a very hard time with. She will take a toy from one of the two year olds or the one year old and then taunt them with it. She sasses back to no end, does not go potty on her own, you have to remind her, and if you don't there is the great possibility that she will just go in her pants. Just this week she stood in the middle of the toy room while cleaning up before lunch screaming at me that she had to go potty and there was no one anywhere near the bathroom and I had to tell her well go then and no she didn't make it and I had to practically dress her because she couldn't even put her pants or underwear on by herself. I had to tell her to take her shoes off to get her wet pants and undies off! Just now I tell her to put the books away the right way, that ALL of the books don't fit in the top basket of the three stacking baskets I have, that she needs to put some in the other baskets and she tries shoving them farther in the top basket and acting like she doesn't understand what I am saying at all. She gives me this blank look when I talk to her and she will NOT look you in the eye if you say look at me when you have her close to you her eyes wander up down and around not focusing on you. I know some of it is just childhood behavior, but I can not handle her anymore. And the parents are doing NOTHING about it. Not even trying to prepare her for school even. I know for a fact, Mom has told me, that Mom and Dad watch their satellite tv downstairs and eat their supper at night (not all, but enough) and they send Monster upstairs to her room to eat her supper and watch her shows on her satellite tv. She had SATELLITE TV IN HER ROOM WHEN SHE WAS 2! Mom says she may be spoiled, but what else was she supposed to do with the extra tv and satellite reciever? I told her honey, I didn't have tv in my room at all until I was married and it's still not satellite!!!!!!
I pulled a skills-concepts checklist for four year olds, the developmental characteristics, from the daycare group I am in and I was amazed at what she could not do. For starters I knew that she couldn't hop on one foot, hold up two fingers, or four fingers to show age or anything. I know her speech is terribly hard to understand, K is always asking me to interpret, and others have come over and had to ask me what she is saying because they can't understand her. But I also found that she can not tell me how a cat and a dog are the same, could only find one way to get across the room, does not know any of the letters in her first name, does not know many letters of the alphabet at all, despite me working on a letter a week and doing different activities with them. She could not even identify any of the letters that we had already done. We have gone through M now. She can not identify words that begin with the same letter or rhyme if I give her three words she can not find the two that rhyme, nor can she think of another word to rhyme with one that I give her. She can not associate a letter with its sound in spoken words, she does not know the functions of body parts, and can not identify expressions of feelings, for every one I gave her she said sick. She told me that we wear boots, coat, and mittens for cold, winter weather as well as hot, summer weather, she can not solve a simple verbal problem using numbers like if you have two pieces of candy and I give you one more, how many will you have?, she does not know the square or diamond shape, and does not have the coordination skills to catch a ball.
On top of all of that she does not have very good social skills at all. She plays with one child, leaving another child out. If the boys look at her cross eyed or try to play a bit rougher like boys do with her she whines to no end but will NOT use her words and say please don't do that. She did not speak a word until well ater her second birthday. Not even the normal babbelings that toddlers have, she was almost absolutely silent.
In one of my daycare families the mother works at a large hospital in the area. She just graduated nursing school and she has three children of her own. She is quite familiar with the developmental checklists and what children at a certain age should be doing. One day this mother came over for a completely different reason and after watching Monster asked me how old she was and when I told her 4 she almost fell off of my couch. She said from a developmental standpoint she would have guessed 2! You can not tell me that there is not something wrong there!
I keep her on because I keep thinking that I can help her, that I know the life she has at home so I need to do something. But as I have been told many times, and have recently been told again, I do not have to be a doormat. Just because I put my foot down does not mean that I am not a good Christian. And from another I am not a trash can with a hairy lid. And from a few others, I don't need this. I just feel so defeated and like I am giving up, but I just can't handle it anymore.
Mom is no peach either. She is always asking things that are none of her business and talking to me through her child, not just speaking to me. If I have something up on my computer screen she will read it, or if there is something on my desk she will read it. She does not discipline either. One incident that sticks out is last winter, Monster was so excited to go out and play in the snow. She was naughty so Mom said no. Just five minutes later as I was thinking ok way to go Mom, she heads out the door and says ok Monster, come on you can play in the snow while Mommy shovels! Gah!
I don't know what to do, I'm just at the end of my rope. I'm sorry for anyone who read all the way through this long winded rant. It is more to help me just vent it all out than anything else and this just seemed the best place to do it. More positive posts coming soon I promise.

Can I give up yet? Gah! I am surviving the finger that was shut in the door, don't think it's broken after all...have had it taped up with another finger just in case, and it really did help it to feel better. The pain is finally better there, just looks like the nail is coming off completely. Yuck. Now I am fighting another battle with tmj. It hurt so bad last night. I was awake for most of the night, Casey was too. I think he may have found something in the garbage to eat that didn't agree with him. Poor K is going to have a long day at work after the two of us were tossing and turning all night!
I am just getting the feeling like it's one thing after another. I'm trying not to get discouraged, but when the pain is so bad that you can't even sleep it's hard. Thankfully the kids are being pretty good today.
Looking forward to Awana tonight. It is beach night and backwards night since we missed last week. Must remember to bring the camera. We have counsel time first, which means I get to play the obnoxious kid first. I have counsel time myself next week. I am going to do another story bag. They seemed to like the first one. I hope they like this one.
Well, craft time with the wild indians....laters.

What a week! And it's only Tuesday! I am soooooo ready for winter to be over and for summer to get here! We had a BIG winter storm hit over the weekend. We got about a foot of snow and as if that wasn't bad enough we had rain, sleet, and strong winds to go along with it. We cancelled church on Sunday, there was no way we were going to get into that parking lot and the visibility and the roads were not good anyway, so we decided just to be safe to call things off. We ended up spending the weekend with friends and having alot of fun just hanging out watching movies, playing out in the snow, and talking.
There was talk about having church at PM and C's for those in town who wanted to come, but that didn't work out either. We went to get chorus books to take to PM in case it did work out and we had a little incident at church.....I went to take my boots off so I didn't track snow all the way upstairs and K came in behind me and shut the door....on my finger. It is now a pretty color purple and pretty sore. I think it is more sore today than it has been the last couple of days. I posted a couple pictures of that finger and of all the snow and ice that we have gotten in my flickr account.
The worst part is that they say we could be in for more yet. I have heard three to five inches all the way up to another foot or two. UGH! No more! I will keep you all posted.

Well, this has been another interesting week. The kids have all been fighting the "lovely" cold that has been going around. Baby C was diagnosed with RSV and they think that one of my older kids may technically have it as well, but they won't do the test for it for her because she is too old. They say that it really boils down to a bad cold and she just needs rest. We deep cleaned all the toys and things the other night and I have been continually wiping things down with the disinfectant wipes to keep it away as much as possible.
I didn't have any kids until 8 this morning so I got to sleep in! And I went to bed early last night...I have started with the same cold so that was nice.
I posted some pictures on my Flickr account of a couple scarves that I finished knitting. I am working on another one, need to take some pictures of it yet, but I am having fun. The first one was blue fun fur and white regular yarn. This one I am knitting now is blue fun fur knit together with white fun fur. I like it. I am going to knit a camoflage scarf for my dad first and then K wants a new one knit. This one will be Iowa Hawkeye colors in a different yarn he picked out. I'll post pictures of that one soon. I also have a few more in the works, red, white, and blue fun fur knit together; black yarn with a yellow/gold fun fur, and a black regular yarn knit together with a pale pink baby fun fur. Plus there is the whole tote of yarn I have upstairs to get through! I have alot of knitting to do! Not to mention that I am now learning to crochet, and of course then there is the quilting and the counted cross stitch. Where am I going to find all the time?????

Yeah, I've been gone for a while again, but this time it's not my fault! Last Wednesday my computer decided to kick the bucket. We took it to the computer dr in town and he said that it was the motherboard. Now, we replaced the motherboard and power source this time last year so we were not too hepped on having to replace it again. The computer dr said that the brand we had is known for frying motherboards. So he said that he could take my hard drive and put it in another compouter and I could have it back by Monday. Monday came and K went to pick it up, but it was worse than he thought and nothing could be saved. So he promised to fix something else up for us, but it woud be Wednesday before we could pick it up. Gah! I survived, but it was NOT fun I tell you!
In the meantime we got a call telling us that my Dad's Dad had died. We weren't that close, my memories of him from my childhood are of being afraid of him. But we went to the visitation and saw some family that we hadn't seen since before our wedding or at our wedding, and we will be married for 10 years in June! The saddest part for me is that I know where he is. He was not a Christian and wanted nothing to do with church. He was 76.
Just this morning we got a call that another extended family member died last night. She was in her 90s and a very sweet Christian woman. I don't know if she attended another church service after K's Dad left the church to move to Missouri...but the funeral home called PM and he will be doing the funeral on Wednesday. I'm glad it's him doing it. A mutual friend had called to see if K's Dad would be interested in coming up to do the funeral, but we just didn't know if that would be possible either...I'm glad that PM is doing it rather than the other pastor of the church that we used to attend.
Let's see, what else happened....the dead bolt lock on the front door decided to be impossible to turn, K is working on replacing that now....
It sounds like the "fun" is spreading to those around us too. Some friends of ours had car trouble on the way in to church this morning. At lunch we got a call that PM was stuck on the side of the road with a flat in Wisconsin, he was on the way home from visiting his brother. He also told us that his wife, C, was stuck with car trouble too. We are praying that they all make it back safely. K is in line to do the church service tonight in case PM can't make it. I think he's a bit nervous.
I posted some pics on my flickr account of some things that went on while my computer was down, Super Bowl Skating and some pics of the kids, and also some of the Valentine's Banquet that we had last night. It was alot of fun and the food was GREAT! The kids did a great job with the entertainment too!
Hope you are all having a better time than we are, just hoping it all settles here soon!

Your Candy Heart Says "Hug Me"

A total sweetheart, you always have a lot of love to give out. Your heart is open to where ever love takes you! Your ideal Valentine's Day date: a surprise romantic evening that you've planned out Your flirting style: lots of listening and talking What turns you off: fighting and conflict Why you're hot: you're fearless about falling in love

What Does Your Candy Heart Say?

I didn't know what kind of day it was going to be when it first started out, but it has been a pretty good day! A bit of an odd moment thrown in here or there, but all in all a good day.
I got up at 5:30 and went to the Fitness Center to work out with K2 and I got my 15 minutes in on the bike on the highest level I have done yet, and did an extra ten pounds on a couple of the leg machines so I was feeling pretty good.
I came home and cleaned the house and after my shower I decided that I had a little extra time so I would mop the kitchen floor and not just leave it swept and after I finish I go to dump the bucket outside in the yard and the wind picks up and the next thing I know is my legs are SOAKED! At least it was hot water that I had used, and I wasn't freezing!
I was in a bit of a mood after that, and after finding out that since Monster wasn't coming today and I could get in early for piano lessons and then possibly go and catch some of J's game that they switched the boys and girls games and the boys would be playing while I was taking lessons once again! GAH! I was bummed! If you can't tell I am getting hooked on the whole sports thing. My family was not into sports and still aren't, but since going to games to support different kids at church and having friends who answer my stupid questions and explain things that I don't understand, now I am having alot more fun going to these games, looking forward to them more, and even watching more pro sports on tv. K just laughs at me and shakes his head! He's a good guy putting up with my craziness!
Well, I had to call and talk to PM and found out that J was playing with the sophomore team and that is away. You know it's amazing what just talking to a friend will do for you, even if you don't really talk about anything at all. We talked about a prayer request that I was emailed, a practice for special music on Sunday, the boys basketball schedule, how cold it was outside and how he wanted to talk to K about arranging things on Sunday as there will be more instruments and things by the piano and needing a little more moving and shuffeling stands and things around. I tell you just hearing a friendly voice, a happy person, another adult, did so much for my mood! Isn't it wonderful what friends can do?! I have been thinking alot about friends the last few days, between some things that Holli has been going through and some of her posts and some things that have happened to me lately. I plan to write an entry about some of those things coming up too, but I am trying to sort some of them out in my head myself before I can write about them coherently.
But, the kids are gone and I have about an hour before piano lessons so I had better stop for now. I wish you all lots of happiness and close friends!

Today is Holli's birthday, over at Baby Faith! Go on over and wish her a happy birthday! Holli, I am so thankful for your friendship, even though we haven't met face to face, I do think of you as a true friend. I hope that your birthday is a WONDERFUL one! I hope that it brings you many blessings, many wonderful gifts, many many smiles and hugs, and lots of laughter! Hope you have a very Cupcake birthday!

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