A campfire (okay, porch fire) and s'mores...

I am sure some of you from some parts of the country think it has been pretty darn cold where you are from. Well... we have felt a little bit of that cold air here in Florida too. Friday night brought us weather in the 40's. That feels like absolute winter weather to us. Awhile back, my mom bought Tim one of those round fire pits. Problem was it was round and took up A LOT of space, so we returned it. Oh, I should mention that Tim is a pyro. He loves to make fires, loves to play with the fire, you get the idea. A few weeks back, he decided to make a fire in our grill. We have the old fashioned grill without propane, etc. It is just a grill. At first I thought he was a little odd, but then I thought about s'mores! For the last several weeks anytime we get a cold night, we have had a fire. The kids love to sit on the porch and I either get some alone time in the house for myself or I go out and join them. Either way, it is a win/win situation! Oh and I even figured out exactly what nutritional values are in a s'more and added it as a food grouping to my Sparkpeople. Is that not dedication?

Another plug for Sparkpeople.com

So, this morning I stood on my scale. That isn't the exciting thing - the exciting thing is that it said that I am down 15 lbs - halfway to my goal. How? You really want to know, right? SPARKPEOPLE.COM . That is the secret, well not that it is a secret, but you know what I mean. I started Sparkpeople a little over 3 months ago. I put my weight, height and goals in. My goals were to lose 30 lbs by my 35th birthday in April. I wanted to lose about 1 lb a week. I said I would do some type of cardio 3 times a week and strength training 3 times a week. Then the wonderful Sparkpeople computer figured out how much calories, fat, carbs and protein I should have in a day. It also figured out how many calories I needed to burn in a week. They have all sorts of calorie burning activities in there. For instance, I raked leaves 3 times last week. I could go on the cardio section and type rake leaves - then it told me about how many calories I burned in the 30 minutes I did this. That is the basics of the website. There really are way more things there - articles, message boards, motivational helps. For me, tracking my food, making sure I drink the 64 ounces of water, and trying to do all the exercise seems to be working. Knocking on wood here! Seriously, I don't do all the exercise each week. Some weeks are better than others. I do pretty well with the eating because it gives you the freedom to eat whatever you want. For instance, my kids had a birthdays when I first started. I new I would be eating pizza and cake. I sat down and planned what I could eat that day and stay within the limits. I don't always do that, though. About once a week, I try to let myself eat whatever I want. The funny thing is that Tim and I went out to dinner on Saturday night. When we walked into the place, I saw the pie counter. I told Tim I was going to get some pie for dessert. Then I got done eating and really had lost my want for pie, so I skipped it. Of course, on Thanksgiving I ate a lot of pie! LOL! I still have 15 lbs to go and I don't know how fast that will go, but I am really happy with what I have done so far. If you click the blue link above, it will take you there. I am CLAYTONTK if you sign up. I get sparkpoints - don't really count for anything - just motivation!

All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth...

Oops, make that ONE front tooth! Here is my lovely son with his chipped tooth. How did he do that, you ask? Playing an "air soft" game. This is some sort of game where you shoot soft pellets at each other - well sorta soft would be more like it. If you get somebody with really good aim or really bad aim depending on how you look at it, then you too could chip your tooth from this game. I am happy to say it is all fixed and looks good as new. I haven't snapped a picture of the fixed tooth, so this will have to do! Oh and please ignore the just jumped out of the shower hair - I am still amazed he let me take this picture!

This and that...

I thought I would post a quick run-down of stuff. I will post another one later with pictures too. I mentioned that we bid on a house this week. How on Earth did that happen? I was taking my usual walk with Sebastian and I saw a house for sale in our neighborhood. I had my handy cell phone on me, so I called to see what they were asking. She said $209,900. That is a bit low for this area, so I asked her if there was a reason. She said it was a distress sale and had to go very quickly. She said it needed work, but it wasn't horrible. I called Tim and honestly, I was a little down to hear the house would sell so low. We live in a neighborhood that has very few houses go up for sale. Everytime, somebody tries to to appraise our house - they hit a wall because they can't find another 4 bedroom in the neighborhood that has sold within a year. This house is not like mine, but still. That got Tim thinking... maybe we should buy it, fix it and sell it. We knew a house with the exact floorplan has sold this month for $240,000. We decided to go look. Once we looked, we made a list of repairs. With that knowledge, we decided the most we would want to bid was $180,000 because we wanted to be sure we could make a profit. Of course, we knew this was way low, but you never know until you try. The guy didn't say no right away, but he did say no. The realtor told us to hang on because if he didn't get another offer soon, he may come back to us. For right now, we think that is not going to happen and are just moving on with our house stuff. Crazy, huh... go from 2 jobs and 1 house to having 1 job and 2 houses!!! What are we thinking? Other than that, we have been working on more house stuff. Tim has two weeks off at Christmas and we are really hoping to accomplish many of the tasks we have. I have had to take a short break and move onto decorating for Christmas, writing Christmas cards, and getting my stuff ready to mail. Then I guess it will be back to house stuff. Stay tuned for pictures of the teenager with a chipped tooth and more...

A Christmas Meme...

I have been meaning to blog about 3 or 4 things this week... including bidding on a house in our neighborhood when we are going to be selling this house and moving... that will have to wait for another day, a son with a chipped tooth, a craft fair I went to a couple weeks ago and more... I promise I will try to be better. It occurred to me that it is DECEMBER 1st and I have not even gotten my Christmas decorations out of the shed. I am usually so ready to put up my decorations, but - honestly - I think if I could pay an elf to come put my tree up - I would! Okay, so Savannah wouldn't really let me do that. I know, I know... to help me to get in the spirit I am borrowing a Christmas meme I found.

My Christmas Memories


1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? Hot Chocolate - obviously! Seriously, I have never even tried egg nog. It just doesn't sound like something I want to try.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree? Santa wraps EVERYTHING! I mean every tiny little thing down to the tic tacs in the stockings. I love watching my kids tear into gifts and think that really most of the fun is in opening. Sometimes they could care less what is really inside.

3. Colored lights or white? I really like colored for my inside tree. I have gone through phases of liking white and blue lights outside. *Tim rarely puts the lights up outside, though.* My favorite lights are what I had as a kid. We just had one string that hung from the porch roof and they were those kind that are bigger - like night light bulbs. I have seen them on houses here and there and I am always so happy to see them. Someday, maybe we will get some of those.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope - who needs mistletoe to kiss?

5. When do you decorate for Christmas? Usually the weekend after Thanksgiving and sorta keeps going through that whole week. This year we were painting our whole living area the weekend after Thanksgiving. I guess that makes it this weekend that we will be decorating!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish, excluding dessert? It is hard to choose since I can't say peanut butter chocolate kiss cookies and fudge... I really like getting take out Chinese on Christmas Eve. My favorite Christmas meal as a kid was when my mom ordered Pizza Hut on Christmas Eve. She worked in the ER back then and was really tired from her night shift. She has since told me that she felt horrible giving us pizza on Christmas Eve, but she was exhausted. The thing is that when we were kids, we didn't get pizza all that often. I was so excited for the pizza guy to come. My kids, on the other hand, get pizza a couple times a month. That would not really be a thrill, but Chinese food seems a little extra special.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? We always did our presents and Santa on Christmas Eve because like I said, my mom usually had to work the night shift. So, my dad would take us four kids out to look at lights. He would do donuts and drive like a nut and we laughed ourselves silly. While we were out, my mom would run next door to our neighbor's and they would bring all the presents over. We knew if the Christmas lights were back on that Santa had come. I STILL remember how excited I was when we would walk in and see all the presents. It was like magic!

8. When and how, did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't remember. I guess I still believe. Seriously, some people talk about being lied to and being crushed - blah, blah, blah - whatever! I absolutely love my Santa memories. Even more I love my memories of sharing Santa with my kids! I can still remember Timmy being outside on the porch doing the Santa Tracker thing and hearing bells. His eyes were so wide open and amazed! It was priceless! Since I am harping on people not liking Santa... it just drives me absolutely wacko when OTHER kids tell my kids there is NO SANTA! Who on Earth put these other kids in charge of this? That never happened when I was a kid that I can remember. I am pretty sure Savannah doesn't believe anymore because she has been told by other kids not to. I will have to stomp on any kids that tell Sebastian! Okay, I won't really do that, but I seriously hope they don't ruin the magic for him.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes, we always open my mom's gifts to all of us and any packages that were mailed to us. When I was a kid we did all of our presents on Christmas Eve because my mom usually worked in the ER that night and didn't want to be tired in the morning watching us open gifts.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? It is a hodge podge of this and that. We have some sets of matching ornaments, but mostly they are just the ones we have collected over the years. I did manage to save many of my childhood ornaments. When I had Savannah and started making a definate effort to get the kids their own ornament each year. Before that Timmy has some hit and miss years for ornaments. The thing is that I will be sad to give them their ornaments when they move away. I have even thought of buying two of each one - one for them to take and one for me to keep with my memories.


11. Snow. Love it or hate it? I love to look at it through a big window, snuggled in a blanket, not that I have done that in the past 16 years of living in Florida.

12. Can you ice skate? I have ice skated exactly once. Savannah was 4 and we went to a homeschool Christmas party that was at the rink. She so wanted to do it and I was terribly afraid. I was actually pretty down at the time due to some family stuff and when we got out there to skate... we had the best time. I mean it was wonderful! She is 8 now and I can't believe we haven't done it again. I need to make a date for that this December. What a great reminder!

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I have two - one from my childhood and one from being an adult. When I was a kid, my favorite gift was a few actually. I think I was about 7 and Santa brought me a doll that was the size of a 6 month old baby. I also got a real umbrella stroller and diaper bag (think 70's style hard flip top diaper bag) stuffed with real baby clothes! I guess my adult favorite is probably my true favorite of them all, though. Tim put a tiny baby pacifier in my stocking the Christmas of 1997. When I reached down and opened it, I just burst into tears! It was his sign that he was ready to have a baby! Words cannot express my shear happiness from seeing a $3 pacifier in my stocking.

14. What is the most important thing about the holidays to you? Well, of course, it is about Jesus. I always showed Timmy that part of it, but I think I have gotten much better with my other two kids. I guess it was something that I needed to grow with before I could fully share all of it with my kids. Aside from that, it is about family. I love being with them, baking, cooking, wrapping, watching silly movies, etc.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Oops, I already answered that above. I love what my mom always called Peanut Blossoms. They are those peanut butter cookies with the hershey kiss on top. I don't know why we usually only make them at Christmas. I can eat a ton of them which is why I am stressing because of my Sparkpeople program and I don't want to know how much of what is in those little cookies!

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? I don't know if this is a tradition or not, but I love baking with my kids. I love making tons of cookies and fudge. I could bake and bake some more, except my house would be incredibly a mess and I would be behind on everything. (Side note - I just asked Timmy what he would say my favorite tradition was since I was kinda stumped - he said making peanut butter cookies! LOL!)


17. What tops your tree? A frugal (read cheap) light up star we got at Walmart a few years back that is INCREDIBLY pretty!

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? I love giving gifts especially to my kids. My mom is probably the second on who I love to get gifts for. I shop all year round and like trying to find that perfect thing for them.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? I really like the one called Mary, did you know? Not when Kenny Rogers sings it though... I think it is Kathy Mattea or something like that.

20. Candy canes. Yuck or yum? I like the tiny ones a little bit, but I prefer chocolate any day.

Homemade Chocolate Cheesecake and Cinnamon Rolls...

The night before Thanksgiving, Savannah and I put together some homemade goodies. I had said earlier that day that it had been sort of a slow blogging week. She asked me to take pictures of our treats in the making and then post them to my blog. Yes, it has taken a week to do that, but my living room, dining room and kitchen all got painted during that time - more about that in another post. The first recipe for the Chocolate Cheesecake came from my sister-in-law, Jessica. I think it was several years ago when she was here on leave from Korea. She wanted to make something for all of us and she knew how very much I loved chocolate. It was a really simple recipe she found on Hershey's website. Warning... it is VERY RICH, but oh so good! We actually make a homemade graham cracker crust to go with it too. Yummy! The second recipe is for homemade cinnamon rolls. This comes from a very nice homeschooling mom that goes by the screen name of Quiverof10 on The Well Trained Mind Message Boards. They are a huge hit for those of us that frequent that board. Again... these things are RICH and YUMMY! Here are the recipes.

Graham Cracker Crust

1 1/4 cups of Graham Cracker Crumbs (one individual package crushed up)

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup margarine of butter, melted

Place one individual package in gallon size ziploc bag and crush or use food processor.

In small bowl stir crumbs and sugar. Add margarine or butter. Toss until combined.

In 9-inch pie plate evenly spread crumb mixture. Press onto bottom and sides of pie plate. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm. (Or, bake at 375 degrees for 6 to 8 minutes or until light brown. Cool.)

No-Bake Chocolate Cheesecake

1-1/2 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1 package (3 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, softened

2 cups frozen non-dairy whipped topping, thawed

Place chocolate chips in small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at HIGH for 1 minute; stir. If necessary, microwave at HIGH an additional 15 seconds at a time, stirring after each heating, just until chips are melted when stirred. Set aside to cool.

Beat cream cheese, sugar, and butter in large bowl on medium speed of mixer until creamy. Gradually add melted chips, beating on low speed until blended. Fold in Whipped topping until blended; spoon into crust.

Refrigerate until firm. Garnish as desired. Cover; refrigerate leftover cheesecake. About 8 servings.

Cinnamon Rolls

Dough

1 T. Dry Yeast

1 Cup warm milk

1/3 C. white sugar

1/2 C. melted butter

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

4 C. flour

Dissolve yeast in warm milk. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Knead into a ball. Let rise until double in size. When ready, roll out to about 1/4 inch thick. Spread with filling.

Filling
1/4 C. butter, softened

1 C. brown sugar

3 T. cinnamon

Spread butter on dough evenly. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over dough evenly. Roll dough up. Slice roll into 1 inch slices. Place on greased pan. Let rise again until doubled. Bake 10 minutes at 400 degrees.

Icing
1/2 C. butter, softened

1 1/2 C. powder sugar

1 oz. cream cheese

2 T. whipping cream (or milk)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

pinch of salt

Beat until fluffy. When rolls are hot, spread lots of icing on them.

To make these the night before needed, skip the final frising step. Let rise overnight in the fridge. In the morning, bake.

To make slicing easier, I use dental floss. Just slip it under, criss cross and pull and you have nice, even slices.

Our tree smack in the center of our front yard...

As the "Kari C in FL" suggests... we live in Florida. We don't really get fall color. Well, except, for a few trees here and there. We just so happen to have one of those big trees in our front yard. Between my parents owning this house and us buying it - we have been here for 16 years. I always liked the big tree in the front yard. When we moved away for about 2 years, our new house didn't have ANY TREES! Not a one! I tried to get Tim to plant one smack in the center of the front yard, but he never did do it. Yesterday and today when I drove into the neighborhood and up to my house, I found myself thinking how pretty our tree was. Sure, we have leaves EVERYWHERE and not many of out neighbors do. The leaves get tracked into the house every year without fail. I find myself grumbling since I just cleaned the floor only to find more crushed leaves. But, the last few days I saw the lovely yellow color. Sebastian and I crumpled them under our feet each time we took something to the big trash can or checked the mailbox. (Yes, he MUST accompany me on any trip to the trash or mailbox.) Then I started to think that this will most likely be the last year that we look up at our Florida tree that changes colors and loses it leaves. That made me want to take a picture of it and then I knew I just had to share it with all of you. Enjoy our pretty tree that is smack in the center of our front yard!

Happy Thanksgiving...

Ohhhh.... what a nice day we had today. We got up to homemade cinnamon rolls courtesy of a very nice homeschool mom's recipe. Then we headed to the park up the street and took family pictures for our Christmas cards. My sister in law, Jessica, was nice enough to take the pictures for me and she did a great job. I am not going to post THE family Christmas photo on here in case you are on our card list, but I will put some of the others. We came home from there and my mom and I got dinner on the table. We had a relaxed afternoon of eating and visiting. Tonight, we rented The Lake House and watched that. I really enjoyed this movie! Now, I am going to sit and read my After Thanksgiving sale ads since the little ones are in bed. I have thought about a lot of things I am thankful for today. If you know me or read my blog, you know it has been a crazy time right now. Job loss, house renovations, preparation for a move to who know where, etc. Still... I can look at how incredibly blessed we are. I have said it before on here, but since it Thanksgiving, I will say it all again. I am so thankful for my family. My husband has been AMAZING. He always was amazing, but right now - during a time when I feel quite lost - he has just held me up. My kids keep me on my toes. They let me know that I can't for a moment wallow in my own self-doubt. They show me that I always have to look forward to whatever God has planned. My mom is always there for us. She does whatever I need, whenever I need it. She gladly moves to who knows where, who knows when... without so much as a wimper. I am so thankful to have her in my life. I am thankful my niece, Joanna, came to visit with us. It is nice to see her happy face and just hang out with her. I am thankful that Jessica came down to Florida even with all our family drama and I got to catch up with her. There are some little things I am thankful for too... my digital camera that took all these great family pictures today. The beautiful park right by my house to take these pictures. The homemade chocolate cheesecake I made! I am thankful for my dishwasher to wash all the dishes! I am thankful for my really comfy jammies I am in right now and the newspaper just waiting to be read. Those are all little things, but they sure make me happy. I am so thankful for all the kind words from people like my sister-in-law, Karen. She has sent me so many inspirational passages these last few weeks to show me that God is in control and I just need to put all my worries in His hands. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Here are some of our pictures from today.

More bathroom woes...

I am hoping this is my second to last post about our hall bath. You all know what I did to the wall... Tim ended up cutting that part of the wall out and putting a whole new piece of drywall in. While he was repairing that, he fixed a few other rough spots on the wall and then he reprimed and repainted. Yesterday, we decided to head to get a new light fixture for the bathroom. While we were at the store, we decided to get a new toilet too. They have this deal with our county water that they will pay you $100 towards replacing an old toilet. Basically, we could replace it for just about free. We had done this in our master bath a few years back. Tim proceeds to take the old, nasty toilet out and he actually chips apart of it. No problem, we are throwing it out, right? He makes the drywall behind the toilet nice and paints. Great! He takes the NEW toilet and sits in in place. FINE! Then he takes the tank and puts it on. It will not fit! Huh? We have done this before. Why is it not fitting? We decide to quick run back to Lowe's before they close. We opt to not pack this toilet up first and just will return it later. We get there to find that all the toilets are standard 12" inch rough in. We call Timmy and ask him to measure. Ours is 10" inch rough in. The Lowe's guy tells us he can order one, but it will take a month. Remember that I said the old toilet is broken now. Then the Lowe's guy says he is not supposed to tell us this, but there is a plumbing place that has them in stock. That is nice, except it is Sunday evening around 7pm. Not going to fix that tonight. On the off chance, Tim calls Home Depot (isn't it great that I put these phone numbers in his cell phone?). The DO have ONE that will fit a 10" or 12". Woohoo! Even better, Home Depot and Lowes are literally a block apart. We drive over there, pick up our new toilet and we are home free, right? You are so wrong, wrong, wrong!!! We get home, take the new toilet out of the box to find that it is chipped! Tim quick throws it into the car and heads back before they close and exchanges it. He gets that home, gets it installed and then it won't stop running. He dismantles the whole inside and puts it back together and then it is working! Perfect, right? You are wrong, wrong, wrong!!! He sees a tiny leak coming off the back... there is a small hair line crack the whole length of the tank that is leaking a tiny bit! They are closed now, so we have to wait. I ran out this morning and bought a new tank. Let's hope this one is fine. All this and we weren't even really planning on replacing the toilet! Ugggghhhh!!!

Packing, painting, and stuff...

I know you all are anxiously waiting for more bathroom details. The truth is that Tim cut out the section of wall that I tried to patch, then he fixed it, primed it and repainted the entire bathroom. He fixed a few other rough spots in there. I will take a picture when the new light, baseboards, and those blasted towel bars are up. Meanwhile, he asked me to take some of the living room/dining room pictures down. He wants to put a coat of mud over the rough walls in there too. This sounds easy enough, right? Wrong! I have moved exactly 4 times in my life. The first time I was 2 - I don't really remember it. I vaguely remember doing somersaults in the living room when it was empty. The second time I was 18. We moved from IL to FL with my parents. Now I did pack things. I remember unwrapping wedding and shower gifts and putting them right into a packing box. I know I helped pack the house, but honestly I think my mom was the one in control. The third time I moved, I left this house I am in now. My parents used to own THIS house. We rented the in-law apartment from them. We moved a few blocks away. At the time, we had a beat up pick-up truck. So, we did what any really cheap person does and made several trips with the truck. I don't think I wrapped everything in paper, etc. I think we took it over little by little. I do remember Tim saying he felt like Sanford and Son loading his truck up with all our junk. That brings us to our fourth move. We bought THIS HOUSE moved BACK to THIS house. So, again, it was only a few blocks. This time we had acquired more furniture (junk), so we got a rental truck. Again, I don't think I packed really well since I knew it was only a few blocks. What does all of this mean and why am I typing it? Well... because... because... I am completely overwhelmed! I am packing for a definite out of state move - where for sure - I don't know. When for sure - I don't know. Really, I am just supposed to be getting the living room ready to paint. If I am going to take stuff down, shouldn't I just pack it and be done? Yes and no. Depends on if you are staging your house for sale. Some say bare walls are a no-no. Others say absolutely no family photos of any kind. Then there are the people that say a few family photos are good. This leaves me looking at all my stuff and wondering WHICH THINGS should I plan to put back up and which things should I pack? Okay, since I really don't like to write whiny posts without finding some good to write in it... here goes. The really bright side of this is that my house should be painted BEFORE I put up our Christmas decorations. All the stuff I usually have to take down to put up Christmas stuff will already be down. The other good thing is I am super cleaning as I do this. I have dusted places I know I haven't dusted in well... let's just say a really, really, better make that really long time.

Sleeping with the manatees...

This past Saturday night, we had the fun chance to go spend the night at the zoo. Our particular sleeping trip was with the manatees. They have several you can choose from and our brownie troop chose this one. I have to admit that I was very excited because I love the manatees. Every time I go to the zoo, I just want to sit and watch them. I attended as the co-leader chaperon on this trip. We arrived and checked in. Next we dropped all our sleeping stuff at the manatee exhibit. Then it was off to feed the stingrays. This is always so much fun to do. I tried to get some good pictures, but it was a little crazy with all the excitement. After this, we gathered in a show area where they brought out a baby alligator, opossum, porcupine and a kinkajou. We had never seen a kinkajou before. She is this cute little fury thing that sorta looks like a monkey, but isn't. It is actually related to a raccoon. The kids got to touch the alligator and the kinkajou. Next we got our snack and headed for the chow hall. After the kids ate, they got to do two manatee crafts. They were pretty cute and simple to make. Then we went back to the manatee exhibit. They turned off the lights so we could see into the tanks better. During this time, our guide shared all sorts of interesting information about the manatees. For instance, Lowry Park Zoo is the only non-profit manatee rehabilitation facility in the world. All the manatees they have were in danger in one way or another. Some were hit by boats, some had red tide illness, and some came from other zoos because they weren't eating enough. I always thought they just had the same manatees there, but actually they are always moving them out when they get better. They even have a month old baby manatee that they are bottle feeding every three hours! I really wanted to see that, but we couldn't. I really enjoyed this part because it was quiet and we got to just sit and watch the manatees and fish. Very relaxing. Then we were up again and toured the holding pools where they put some of the sick manatees. After this we went to the food building. We got to see some of the things they prepare for the 1800 animals that live there. We learned that there is only ONE person that coordinates all the diets and ordering of food. Of course, many more people actually get the food ready. Our girls got treated to a monkey biscuit that was basically a very dry all grain cookie. Yuck! They got to see some frozen mice and chick popsicles. Yummy, yummy! Finally, we learned that it is just over $400,000 a month to feed all 1800 animals. Manatees are the most expensive to feed because they eat so much and the price of Romaine lettuce varies greatly. We left there and got to make a detour to where some bats live. Our guide told us that we can only see them fly on these night time trips, so we had to make a stop. There was only one to see, though. Shhh... I was happy about that, but the girls were not! After what was a very full and fun evening, we made it back to the manatee exhibit to set up our beds. It was midnight! We got the girls set up in front of the glass window and they got to lay down watching the manatees until about 12:45. Then it was off to dreamland - for them at least... I am a really light sleeper. If you ever get a chance to do something like this, I highly recommend it... it was so much fun!

For Debi...

Today is a tough day... it has been 3 years since Debi passed away. I spent last night sleeping with the manatees at the zoo with Savannah's brownie troop, but early around 1am - I was laying there thinking that today was the day it had been 3 years. Some of you who read know me and know who Debi was, others don't. Put in few words - she was my best friend and my sister-in-law. The thing is there aren't just a few words to describe our friendship. I met Debi when I was 16 and she was 18. She had recently married Tim's brother and moved to Illinois where we lived. We were both expecting our first babies. At first we had sort of an awkward friendship. I remember decorating Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas tree with her that first year. They hadn't put up a big tree for many years, but Debi and I volunteered to put it up. We did it rather quietly and probably a little tense for not really knowing each other well. Over the next 6 months, we both gave birth to our first sons and a friendship was born. Soon she moved away, but we kept in touch with real letters and real pictures. We did Bible studies together through the mail. Occasionally, we would get to make the expensive long distance phone call - like when they bought their first condo and she called just bubbling with excitement. Debi went on to have more babies, but I still just had Timmy. I was working in outside employment and she was working on being the best homeschool mom. We had pretty different lives, but we still wrote letters and kept our families in touch. Then something wonderful happened... America Online. All of a sudden, we could send our letters instantly. We could im with each other and our lives changed. She would send me an email each night and each morning I would reply. We talked about everything. Soon, I was wanting to have that next baby. Before I knew it we were both expecting baby girls. Next I was homeschooling. All of a sudden our lives were very similar and we talked all the time. Email, im, and cell phones. She was my life line. She was who I turned to whenever I needed to talk, she was my dearest friend. Some people would not understand how we could be so close and live states away. We would im at lunch time or late into the night. We would call each other when we were out running errands. We talked everyday. All those talks made our friendship. Then it happened... Three years ago tonight was the worst night of my life. I have had a miscarriage and lost my dad, but hearing the words on that night stand out as the worst thing I have ever gone through. It was just a typical day like any other day. I had taken the kids to the dentist and then ran to the new Super Target. I came home and wanted to tell Debi about the Super Target, but I made myself clean my tub and shower before I sat down to type an email. While I was cleaning my shower, I heard one of my pretty wall hanging plates fall off the wall and on the floor. I came out to see what had happened. As I stood in the doorway, I felt the most horrible angry feeling inside of me. I yelled at Timmy for breaking my plate. I yelled so loud and so mean and it was just not me. He told me it just flew off the wall. He started crying because I was so angry and it scared him. I went in my bedroom and sat down on the floor and cried as if I had lost my best friend. I sobbed. Timmy called my mom because he was so upset and wanted to see if she knew how to replace the plate. He didn't understand and thought if he could find me a new plate, I would be fine. I talked to my mom and I cried. She kept asking me why I was so upset and I told her I just didn't know why, but I felt so, so sad. I finally got myself together and finished up this housewarming gift for my neighbor. Debi had given me the idea. I took it across the street to her and talked for awhile. I remember feeling odd the whole time. Then I saw Tim pull into the driveway. I went over to see him. The first thing I told him was that it had been a bad day and I started crying again. I tried to shrug it off and we got on with the rest of the evening. It wasn't till later that the phone call came and I knew. Later I would find out that at the same time my plate came off the wall and I sat and cried - Debi had been killed by her adopted teenage son. All of a sudden I knew why I felt so sad and so lost. Now it has been three years and I still miss her everyday. I had read that it can take seven years to fully get back to daily life like before. I remember being terrified I would feel this bad for seven entire years. The truth is that each year is a little easier, but I don't think the pain ever goes away. Some days may be better than others, but just as soon as you think you are better - you have a day where you miss her so much all you can do is cry. My best way to think of it is this... when Debi was here on Earth she did so many good things for so many people - just think what she will be capable of doing as an angel. I also remember that I was so lucky and so blessed. I was given 15 years of a friendship some people never, ever get to experience. I was given the gift of knowing her and loving her. I learned so many things from her and I am absolutely certain I would not be the mom I am today had it not been for all the things she shared with me. For today is hard to know that it is the day she died, but I will try to stay focused on all the other days we had together. One last thing, say a prayer for her family. We all can use prayers. I am absolutely certain the strength all those prayers have gotten us through.

My old friend, I recall

The times we had hanging on my wall

I wouldn't trade them for gold

Cause they laugh and they cry me

Somehow sanctify me

They're woven in the stories I have told

And tell again

My old friend, this song's for you

Cause a few simple verses

Was the least that I could do

To tell the world that you were here

Cause the love and the laughter

Will live on long after

All of the sadness and the tears

We'll meet again, my old friend

Goodbye, goodbye

~Tim McGraw

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work we go...

I hope you are not already tired of the "working around the house" posts. If you are, I am sad to say, this is the very BEGINNING of them. I sure hope you will all stick around and go through this "wonderful season" with me. This past weekend, Tim finished all the pavers and concrete in the backyard. Savannah and Sebastian helped by beating the heck out of some extra ones to fill in the concrete blocks before the cement went on top. They really thought that was some pretty fun work. I say he finished this project only to decide that he wants to put some rock down at the end where the yard sloaps. Uggghhhh... I am happy he wants to make it look nice, but we have so many things to do! I keep telling myself that I can count a lot of calories on Sparkpeople if I move each of those slate rocks from the front to the back. How is that for incentive? Next, he worked on the screens around our pool. He got off early on Wednesday and we did 3 of the great big ones. We still have like 9 or 10 left to do, but not all big ones. I think he truly hates the screening job. We even offered the teenage boys a free pay-per-view wrestling party with pizza if they would finish the screens for us. So far, I haven't gotten a huge response to that offer. Today I went to the Albertson's liquor store! No, no, no not so I could drown my home projects in a bottle of whiskey - so I could pick up boxes. Tim is going to start packing up the rec room/garage room so he can have some more room to work on things. Sebastian was engulfed in boxes while we road home. He had quite a perplexed look on his face. That brings me back to painting the bathroom. I just finished one coat of paint and I have great faith I will get another coat done before Sebastian is up from his nap. At least I hope it will be dry enough. (Karen, I don't want to know if I am supposed to wait X amount of hours to do the second coat - I am a mom painting the bathroom, not a painter painting the bathroom! LOL!) My mud job doesn't really look all that great, but my thinking is we are putting the exact same towel bars only newer ones up. They should cover, right? Please humor me here... I still have to paint the living room, dining room, kitchen, 6 six-panel doors, 9 closet doors and help Tim paint the ENTIRE outside of the house. Please be kind and tell me it looks great when I post pictures even if you have to bite your tongue to do it. Thanks!

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten...

Hooray! I can count! Really, I can, but that isn't the reason for this post. The other night at dinner - Tim and Timmy were talking about something. I don't remember what exactly, but Tim said "seven, eight" and then Sebastian said "NINE". We all sorta looked at him like HUH??? Then he went on to say, "Free (three), four, five". I am sure there are those of you out there that think - so what... my two year old did that too. I absolutely know there are two year olds that do that and even three year olds that read. Just not my kids! I have plain, old, typical, everyday type of kids. I remember when Timmy was just about two years old and his cousin, Sean, was 3 months younger than him. We were visiting and Sean was showing me his mommy's shoes. He told me one pair was taupe and one pair was beige. I sat there completely astonished. I mean we hadn't even gotten brown down with Timmy. So, yes, I do know that this is not really a huge thing, but it sure took us off guard. Gotta love NOGGIN because I can tell you that this mommy hasn't really been working number or letters or even potty training with this baby. I have been doing all that other house stuff from my other posts and doing 3rd grade with Savannah. NOGGIN - it's preschool on TV as the commercial says.

Day one of painting the hall bath...

How did I go the whole weekend and not post a thing? I don't know and I can't even remember what we did this weekend... oh... I remember now - Tim and I went out on Saturday night. We went to this Chinese/Asian buffet. I liked it, but he wasn't as happy. It took forever to get them to put crab legs on the buffet. I loved it because we were there for a long time and nobody called me MOMMA the entire time I was away. It was like heaven. We left there and decided to run by Walmart. Wow... what an impressing date, you say? I wanted to go there. I wanted to pick up some things so I could start painting the bathroom this week. You know, drop cloths, brushes, square painty thingies, etc. We also desperately needed Life cereal. We got a movie and headed for home. It was a nice date. So, back to my title. Today, I decided to tackle the hall bath. I went in last night and decided we would need to replace the towel bars. I thought that would make it easier to paint since I wouldn't have to tape them up. I got up this morning and did 4 loads of laundry, ran to the store, cleaned up, did school and THEN it was time - time to work on the bathroom. Here was my first mistake. I took a handheld screwdriver to remove the towel bars and rings. I am twisting and twisting and twisting and well you get the idea. Okay, I head back to get the drill. It works wonders on ONE screw and then the battery dies. That always happens. We have two batteries. You would think we could keep one charged at all times, but we never do. Plan B - pop the battery into the charger and go do some history read alouds for Savannah. With a charged battery, I tackle this again. Most of the screws come out with no problem, but there are two that are a pain. I get one of those two out and decide to focus on taking the towel bar down now. Yes, the screws are out, but it is stuck to the wall like glue. I took my utility knife and scored the edges. One bar came down. The other would not be so nice. I got a plain old, flat NON-SHARP butter knife. I wanted to slide it down the back and get leverage. It slipped and I SLICED my hand with a BUTTER KNIFE!!! I mean really sliced! It is deep and it scared the heck out of me. Breathing and breathing and whining I ran into the kitchen for a bandage. Got it on and had a piece of chocolate because at this point I NEEDED that darn piece of chocolate. I now contemplated leaving this battle for Tim to wage. He would certainly come right in and pop the darn thing off the wall with no problem. But... I couldn't. I was determined this was my project. He has so many things to do around here that I can't do for one reason or another. I could do this and I was going to do this... even if I did mame myself with a butter knife. Bandage on, chocolate eaten, I went back to the war. I finally got the second towel bar off along with quite a bit of drywall. HORROR!!! If Tim saw this, he would not be happy. Panic!!! What to do? Mud stuff - we must have some somewhere. He always has that kind of stuff somewhere, right? Sure enough - I found a big bucket of it. I took that flat tool thingie and smoothed it on. Whew... it worked. Okay, there is one circle towel bar left. It has a stripped screw. I pulled and pulled and pulled and finally the bar came down but left the screw. Who put these things up and did they mean for us to hang from our toes on them everyday? Back to the garage for those locking plier thingies. I begin to twist and twist and twist and you get the idea. Success! All I really wanted to do today was tape up the bathroom, take the towel bars off and prime. I had to prime because of the faux finish already there. The prep took way longer than I thought and honestly I thought about putting my feet up and watching Oprah at this point. I didn't do it though. I kept going. Got the primer going and finished one coat - except where the mud has to dry. Did I mention I made homemade lasagna during all of this. Okay, okay, it was homemade awhile back and we froze them. Thank God for those types of things in the freezer or I think I would have cried when it was time to make dinner. We ate, Tim took Sebastian outside on the porch swing and I went back to do another coat of prime. The end of day one. You know after looking at the pictures I took - I didn't think the BEFORE bathroom pictures looked half bad, but the paint really was dingy. It has been 7 years since we painted in there. The after looks, well, like PRIMER. I sure hope it looks better with paint and finished. Stay tuned...

Halloween 2006

Halloween was a particular busy one this year. Most years we just go to the city celebration on the weekend and then Tim and I would take the younger ones trick-or-treating. NOT THIS YEAR!!! We were super busy! I have written about the great group of homeschool friends we have made over the past year or so. We have joined our kids together for lots of things and Halloween was no exception. Saturday night our city does a Halloween carnival sort of thing. Lucky for me it is walking distance from our house. We had everyone meet here and head on up to that. They have trick or treating for the kids and then you get an armband for the jumping air rides. It was a full night and my friend took pictures, but I haven't gotten them emailed to me yet. When I do, I will post some. It was sure fun. The next night - Sunday - we went to a Trunk or Treat event at a local church. The kids went round and round and round getting candy. Savannah won 10 free games of bowling in the raffle. We are going to take her brownie troop with that. Sebastian had a blast! He soon figured out they were putting CANDY in his bucket. He was so excited. He held my hand and walked around like a trooper. Monday night, Savannah had a friend over to visit and then Tuesday night was Halloween. We carved on pumpkin on Halloween afternoon. Some teenage boy, who shall remain nameless, let the rechargable batteries for my camera die completely. So, I couldn't take pictures of Savannah carving her pumpkin. We had everyone coming to meet in our neighborhood to go out together. By the time we set out the door, we had something like 18 HOMESCHOOLED kids ages 2 to 17 and 5 adults. How it that for poor, undersocialized homeschoolers? It was slightly overwhelming, but fun. Sebastian walked the entire neighborhood the first time around one side, then he stayed home with daddy while we finished the rest of the houses. Candy, candy, candy!!! We have so much of it and I have been doing so well with my Sparkpeople. I think I may have to make my kids eat it all up so it will be out of my house. I know, I know, I could throw it away, but it is chocolate... that seems so very wrong. It was a busy, whirlwind of doing and going, but oh so much fun! I am sure a Halloween that will be remembered for many years to come.

Busy, busy, busy...

Tim and I sat down and wrote up a list of house projects room by room. We have been here for 7 years and done a TON of stuff. New kitchen, bath, torn out wall, new roof, fence, carpet, paint, landscaping, tons of shelving, windows, koi pond, etc. It has been a lot of work and we actually are seeing the end to most of the major projects. Funny how that works... you work and work on a house and then when you are close to being done... you move. We still have a few bigger things to do - drywall the walk-in closet and move the plumbing and electric for the washer/dryer. Finish stucco around where new window went in and then paint the whole outside of the house. And, of course, paint the whole inside living room, dining room and kitchen. We are also going to put new baseboards in there too and then six paneled doors for all the bedrooms/bath. Those are most of our big projects left. The rest are pretty small. Fix a few odds and ends, but when you add them together - they sure take a lot of time. Before my job ended, I had asked Tim to put pavers in our backyard where the grass does not seem to want to grow. Sebastian has been playing out there and he has to walk through the dirt area to get to the rest of the yard. Tim decided to go ahead and do that project because it will make the yard look better from a sales angle too. I thought it was as simple as throwing pavers on the ground and calling it a day. Ummm... I was mistaken! There is a whole lot of leveling, digging, evening stuff that goes on with this. He got a lot done this weekend before we ran out of pavers. Even though it is not done it sure looks a lot better than it did. Unfortunately, I didn't take a before picture. These are the in process pictures. This week I have been finishing up sealing the floor. Yes, we started that awhile ago, but it still isn't done. I should be done by the end of the week, I hope. Like I said - busy, busy, busy.

Wacky Hair Day at Co-op...

I have a few things to post about, but I also have a lot of things on my list to do... so be patient... I am going to get them all on here over the next day or so, I hope. First thing on my camera was pictures from last Friday. Savannah and Tim II go to a homeschool co-op on Friday. It was Wacky Hair Day last Friday. Savannah asked me on Thursday what we could do to her hair. The first thing that came to my mind was when my mom helped me dress up as Bride of Frankenstien when I was like 12 or 13. She teased my hair to perfection and then added the white powder to get the perfect look. That is what popped into my head, but then I quickly remembered that Savannah is 8 and not 13. The amount of whining that would come from teasing her hair that way was really not what I wanted early on Friday morning. I guess we will have to keep that idea for Wacky Hair Day when she is older. On to my next, much easier idea. I told her I could put pony tails all around her head. She didn't like that idea very much, but it was the only one I was telling her... I didn't tell her about the other one. I told her that was fine and she could ponder it until morning. Friday morning came and she woke up to say, "I would like pony tails all over my head, please." Smart girl! This was the finished product!