Sitting here watching the birds

There's probably at least two dozen of them flying around outside my window. They've just about got all the berries stripped off my dogwood trees. Every once in a while a bigger one will land in a tree that still has leaves on it and cause a big shower of leaves to come down. I think they must be playing some sort of mixed up game that combines tag and chase and musical trees.

I like birds. They're fun.

Well we got the truck back

The car died while Will was on the way to work this morning (4:30 am *yawn*) so he and I drove over and woke "R" up and told him we needed the truck back. He wasn't happy about it but he didn't raise a fuss.

Hopefully this will be the end of it.

The sacrifice of praise

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. ~ Psalm 100:4-5

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. ~ Hebrews 13:15

I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing. ~ 2 Samuel 24:24

I know that You are strong
I know You're more than able
to save me from whatever, ever comes my way
I know You are a Healer
I know You can deliver
I know that You can rescue me

But even when I cannot see Your hand
when You move in a way that
I would not have planned...

Still I will worship You

I will worship You
in the midnight hour
I will worship You
when I'm in the fire
I will worship You
when all hope seems gone
I will stand and proclaim that
You are my God
I will worship You
I will worship You
~ Curt Coffield

Thank you Lord for teaching me the meaning of a sacrifice of praise. Even when I feel so beat down that I can't even take another step, I will praise you - not because of everything you've done for me or for everything you've given me, but because you are the Holy Holy Holy.

~ me

Life

First of all, big thumbs up to angelfoodministries.com! We got food from them for the first time this past week and have now at least tried almost everything from the order. So far everything has been really good. We'll probably order from them again.

Last night Will and I were watching a DVD and about 11 pm we thought we heard a vehicle (we live at the top of six acres in the woods, so nobody should be driving up unless they're lost and miss the No Trespassing signs). Will had me pause the DVD and he poked his head out the door, then came back in and grabbed the 9MM. I asked him if somebody was out there and he said yes. So I grabbed the phone in case I needed to call 911 and sat there. After about 20 minutes I hadn't heard anything, so I got up and turned off all the lights on this side of the house and grabbed a knife out of the kitchen drawer and went around looking out all the windows to see if I could see anything. The motion light came on and I could see then that Will was standing out there next to a white truck talking to someone.

Hmmm. White truck. Just like the one that was "taken" from us a few months ago. Well, isn't that interesting.

I went and put the knife away and waited for Will to come in. Finally about 11:30 he came in. The guy was drunk (he's a "recovering" alcoholic who sadly doesn't seem too interested in sticking to the recovering part) and has been living in a camper trailer outside his brothers' house (the whole lot of them is a bunch of no-good drunks) and had a sob story about how he was planning to just drive out into the woods and shoot himself (and he had a gun in the truck) but he decided to come up here and talk to Will instead. Sad to say but I doubt any of that was really true, he was just looking for pity. But he did at least give Will back the keys to the old truck (that they were supposed to be fixing up) and the keys to his tool box. He said he'd come back this morning with the money that he owes us (for returning the parts Will paid for to the store) and that he still wants to help rebuild the old truck, blah blah blah. Will just evaded all the comments about wanting the guy to come back around and let him ramble until he was done.

Well the guy showed up today - twice - but neither time did he bother to come knock on the door. He just got into the old truck and took his clothes and stuff he had left out there but was too drunk to care about last night. Will drove down to his brothers' house today (they live in this area) and - surprise surprise - the guy didn't have the money to pay us at all, said he'd have it at the end of the month when his disability check comes in. So I figure we won't see him again for a few months, if ever. Whatever. We still have the title to the truck and the tags are due on it (and we had it removed from our insurance) so it's probably just a matter of time before he gets pulled over and the police take care of it anyway.

We called the church today and they're going to help us pay the electric bill that's due for shutoff this week, so that's a blessing. I HATE that we even have to ask for help, but I know that we'll either pay it back in the offering plate or pay it forward when we're able to, so I try not to get too down about it.

And Will got turned down for the job he was really hoping for. Sigh. They do have some new listings up at the same place though, so he's going to apply for them too. They close at the end of this month.

The school called today and we had to go pick up Dana, she had a headache and a temp of 101*. She's felt fine at home all day though and her fever hasn't come back (nurse gave her Tylenol) so unless she's doing poorly tomorrow she'll go back to school on Thursday.

Nate brought home his report card today and has CURVY A'S! (No, we're never going to let him forget that one LOLOL.) And - he made top score for his grade in both English and Science! I'm so proud of him. His spelling still leaves a bit to be desired, but he reads more and more now so it will come in time as he's more used to seeing words in print.

I know most of you reading this probably don't deal with serious deer hunting, but we depend on the deer Will's able to kill each fall for our red meat for the year, and it is SO frustrating for him to be out in the woods trying to hunt and have people's stupid hunting dogs that they can't be bothered to keep up with, yapping and running the deer all over the place. We have NEVER had to deal with people running dogs the way they do up here in any other places that he hunts, it is the one thing that we absolutely hate about living up here. They drop these dogs off and just leave them in the woods for weeks at a time, you'll see them wandering around the back roads and the highway mostly starved to death, too stupid and hungry to stay out of the road (so you see a good number of them dead on the side of the road). Or they're up in our yard, fighting our dog for her food, lazing about and pooping in our yard. UGH. HATE IT.

Has facebook been freezing up IE for anyone else lately? I can't even get in except thru mozilla, and then not all of the features are available. Frustrating.

This is me, rambling

I haven't checked to see how long it's been since my last blog. A while, I'm sure. I don't care. Sometimes I just don't feel like talking. Sometimes I feel like talking but I don't feel like having anyone listen. Sometimes I feel like having someone listen but I don't feel like having anyone talk back. That probably doesn't make any sense. I don't care.

I don't care. You'll probably hear that more than once tonight. In fact, you already have.

My husband, for the second time this year, is not working. He didn't get laid off this time though, he quit. That was probably "irresponsible" of us (especially since he's our sole source of income) but...I don't care. He was at work on a Friday afternoon, looking forward to the weekend (he had plans with his brother) after working 60 hours that week (plus driving four hours a day back and forth) at a job he despises, and around came the supervisor telling him he had to come in the next day. He said he wasn't going to. Super said yes he was. He said no he wasn't. And...he didn't. Monday rolled in and he didn't go in then either. And we felt at peace for the first time in almost three months. We drove up there together that next Friday to pick up his paycheck and turn in his safety hat and badge, and out of sheer joy we laughed at nothing at all for about five minutes driving away. That was two weeks ago? Three? Don't remember. Don't care.

So now we're looking at our last...$20 or so, with no idea when anything else is going to come in, and I don't care. You hear that? I. DON'T. CARE. Don't like it? Get over it.

Will's cousin is taking us to the state fair next weekend. She's such a doll. The kids don't know yet. We're going to the rodeo. I've never been to a rodeo, not exactly my idea of a great time, heh, but it will be fun watching the kids have fun. And hopefully the weather will cooperate and we can go out on his cousin's houseboat Sunday. Last time we went to visit her (after graduation) it was too flooded to take it out.

Dana is part of a dance and drama team with our church youth, they're performing at...something this Wednesday night if it doesn't get rained out. Hopefully the youth pastor gave them more info about it today, I'll have to email him if he didn't. He's a great guy, but he gets busy sometimes and forgets that the kids that just moved up into the youth group (5th graders) don't know all this stuff yet. Heh.

Will and I watched MST3K's The Brain That Wouldn't Die last night. Cheesetastic. I love netflix. We're going to have to suspend our service this month, but I think we've got time to get one more movie in and watch it before then. It'll probably be something MST3K also, we've been on a kick lately. Watching it on youtube is cool, but there's not as big of a selection and you have to get up and click on the next segment every 10 minutes. Gets annoying.

I made my first order through angelfood.com this past week, we go pick it up next Saturday. I ordered one regular box and one fresh produce box. I really hope it's as good as people have told me. There should be enough in there (along with stuff we already have at home) to feed us for a couple of weeks, along with some milk and bread and other fresh produce of course. I'll be able to get over $10 worth of free groceries during my next trip to Kroger so that will cover quite a bit of the "extra" stuff I need to get. Love how that works out. :)

We found out recently that the federal gov't does most of their new hires after the end of their fiscal year, which is this month, so do please pray that Will is at least considered for all the gov't jobs he's applied for. There's one with the Core of Engineers close by that would be really, really good. It would mean being able to pretty much pay off all of our debt within the next few months, replace our (old, worn out) vehicles within a few months after that, and then start saving up to build a house. And it's a job he's well qualified for, so that's not a problem. And it's about twenty-five minutes from the house. So...yeah. Please pray.

Speaking of praying, Jakey always wants to say grace when we eat now. This is what he says, pretty much every time - "Thank you Father for this awesome, incredible food. Amen!" Hee. I love this kid.

The strange workings of my inner mind

Ya'll probably have all heard me talking about my strange dreams. Thought I would share last night's with you while it's still fresh on my mind.

It started out with me being in our old house in town. Apparently we had a long row of window boxes along the living room windows, because an Amish man and his daughter were sitting outside the window trying to tell me that a squirrel was in one of the boxes. I was pantomiming "OK, thanks for letting me know!" through the window even though I didn't really understand what he was saying, but he was getting frustrated with me and finally motioned for me to go to the door so I could hear him. So I walked out on the porch and then he and his daughter got out of their wagon to talk. She looked to be about 9 years old. She asked me if I had ever heard of this place that was kind of like Build a Bear Workshop, but you make pottery instead. I told her I had heard of it but had never been. Then she showed me this thing she had made there, the clay was still a little soft but it was a beautiful cluster of strawberries with leaves. The detail was incredible and I was complimenting her on what a great job she had done. Then for some reason a whole bunch of people were suddenly sitting around all over the porch. The Amish man mentioned this couple that goes to our church, the H'es, I was telling him that I knew who they were and they lived just a couple of streets over. (In reality, I'm not sure where they live.) Then we were laughing about how when we started going to church with them, they only had their two oldest kids and now they have six.

Then I saw Will walking down the street coming home from work. I was happy to see him even though he didn't look to be in a very good mood. I think he was mad about all of the people being there. I was telling him to look at the strawberries the girl had done, he gave them a cursory glance and stuck a telescope in them (??? don't ask me) and was just generally being a grump. So I nicely told everyone it was time for them to leave and we went inside. I fussed at Will for being rude to the young girl and he said that he didn't think he should have to gush over something that she just made from a premade mold in the last ten minutes the store was open. I told him that if it had been something Dana had made that he would have thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world and there was no reason for him to treat someone else's daughter like that.

The next thing I remember, Will and I were outside of this restaurant. It had a drive-thru like a fast food place, but it was a single owner specialty type place. Our car was parked next to the drive-thru lane and he was having to work on it or something. People kept coming by and staring. This black guy, L, that graduated from the kids' school (that we also go to church with when he's not off at college) came out to help Will with the car. I think he was supposed to be at work in the restaurant because they were mad that he came out there. I think I was sitting inside the restaurant now because I remember watching one of the cooks decorate the cake that L was supposed to be working on, she was griping the entire time and I think mentioned that he was going to get fired. The cake was shaped like a short, fat tube and it was red velvet cake with a white fondant wrapped all around it, and then lines piped all around it in the pattern of a 1st grade writing tablet. One solid brown line, and then a dashed white line, and then a solid brown line, etc etc. This went all the way around the cake lengthwise.

Next I remember Will and I sitting on one side of a table in the restaurant getting ready to eat, and the guy L came and sat at the end of the table with us. He was depressed because they had just fired him. Then Will brought out the cake that I watched the lady decorate and sliced off one big end of it and handed it to L. L was shocked and overwhelmed (the cake had some sort of significance to him, though I'm not sure what) and Will told him "That's what you do for friends. You don't turn your back on them even if they've done you wrong" and then they did this weird hand-clasp thing and started talking about opening a cake decorating shop together.

The end.

This week's provision

So I was praying in some gas money and grocery money for this week. Will gets paid this Friday (24th) but we needed gas in the car before then, and the grocery list is very long since I've been having to skimp on it the past few weeks and we are running out of everything.

So in the mail Saturday I get a $6 rebate check. Sunday afternoon a lady from church calls, wanting to know if I'll work in the 2 - 5 yo classroom that night. She mentioned in passing that it pays $10 an hour. I thought she was joking and laughed. After church she brought me a check for $20. She wasn't joking. So that was $26 I was able to mail to the bank to deposit.

Yesterday I get two more rebates in the mail. $20 and $6. The $6 one I had given up on, I mailed it out months ago but didn't keep a copy of the submission (bad me!) so I just wrote it off as not coming. So there's another $26 for gas. Nice!

Today Will doesn't have to be at work until 11 am, so he has time to run into the post office on the way to work to pick up a certified letter that we've had there for several days but had no way to pick up. It's a graduation card from his aunt with $100 in it. There's the extra grocery money I need.

Thank you Jesus! We appreciate your provisions very, very much.

So who wants to hear a piece of GOOD news for once?

The bank (that we have Will's car loan with) called today to let me know they received the check from the insurance company and to talk to us about the balance due. The lady said that they had faxed the info to the place for the gap insurance. I was like, huh? We didn't have gap insurance. She said it might have been a mistake, but to check our paperwork to see and she'd call back in a few days.

So I finally found the paperwork and guess what? WE DID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So that's $1400 that we no longer have to worry about paying back! WOOOOOO!!!!!!

BTW, "Rodney" never showed up or called today. What an enormous shock. Forgive me Lord. I'm talking bad about him when I don't even know for sure what's going on. But I really am not surprised.

He called yesterday

He was supposed to come by today to work on the truck. Haven't seen him yet, it's almost 11 am. We'll see.

Did the Israelites have to wonder?

When they were wandering around in the desert for forty years and the Lord provided them with fresh manna in the morning and quail in the evening, did they have to wonder if they were going to mess up and the next day's meal would not be forthcoming?

Because that's what I feel like right now. The Lord is providing for us, a little at a time, but always what we need when we need it. But I look at the bills that are due two weeks from now and I wonder - will he provide more then? Or am I going to have to figure out the right way to handle what he has given us for now so that it will last?

Lord God, I am thankful for the provision. I will do my best to be wise with it.

Song Title Fun

Stealing this from a couple of my facebook buddies.

Pick an artist, and using ONLY SONG TITLES from only that artist answer these questions. This is harder than it seems!

ADDITIONAL RULE: You cannot use the same artist I did, or duplicate song titles even if they were performed by another artist.

Artist: Seventh Day Slumber

1. Are you a male or female: Brand New Me (the surgery was a success I guess! heh)

2. Describe yourself: Awake

3. How do you feel about yourself: Undone

4. Describe your ex boyfriend/girlfriend: Innocence (technically I don't have an ex since Will was my first real boyfriend, but I had an almost-relationship this describes well :) )

5. Describe your current boy/girl situation: Miracle

6. Describe your current location: Broken Buildings (hahahahaha, how fitting)

7. Describe where you want to be: Oceans From the Rain

8. Your best friend is: Always

9. Your favorite color is: Candy

10. You know that: I Know (but do I know that you know I know?)

11. What's the weather like: Burning Bridges (well, it is hot, but not *that* hot)

12. If your life was a television show what would it be called: Out Of Time

13. What is life to you: My Struggle

14. What is the best advice you have to give: Believe

15. If you could change your name what would it be: Caroline (that's Caroline, not Carolyn, thank you)

Not really an update, but...

We found out today that the guy in the previous post (I'm going to call him Rodney to make things easier, but it's not his real name) is living out of Will's truck at the moment. He and his roommate got evicted from their apartment.

Sigh.

You know, some people live with this kind of drama in their life all the time, but we don't. It's not us. I don't like it.

Ever have those days when you just can't even scream?

Today is one of those days.

A guy from church came up to our house last week (was it last week? the week before? I don't even remember now) to help Will get one of his old trucks up and running so we could have a second vehicle again. Will totalled his car a few weeks ago, I'm not even sure if I blogged about that. Anyway, they got the engine taken apart and took whatever parts needed to be fixed to the machine shop, and then went to the auto store and ordered the parts they needed to order. The next day they went to pick up the partial order that had come in, Will paid $250 for the parts (all that we could afford to put toward this project - the guy is covering the rest because Will's giving him the Ranger that needs a transmission). Will started a job this Monday so the guy was supposed to come on over and start putting the truck back together alone. He's driving Will's Ranger because he doesn't have a vehicle, and he lives 30+ miles away, this way he doesn't have to have someone bring him.

He wasn't at church Sunday. We didn't think *too* much of it, he's on disability and works at his friend's restaurant whenever he's able to get some part time $$.

Monday comes, he doesn't show up.

Tuesday comes, he doesn't show up.

Today is Wednesday. He doesn't show up. Will called the machine shop to see if the guy had picked up the parts he dropped off, he hasn't even though they're ready. Then Will called to see if the guy had picked up the rest of the order at the auto store. They told him the guy came in and returned the other parts and got "his" money back for them.

Dammit.

So, while Will is on the phone trying to find out where this guy is (he doesn't have a phone, so we have to call around to see if anybody knows where he is) I go outside to spray the kids with bug spray and hear water running. I ask Nathan if his daddy came outside (thinking maybe it was the water hose) and he checked and said no. Crap. I holler into the house that I hear water running and Will comes out and goes under the house. It's the water heater. Water is pouring out of it. Crap. Lowes card is maxed out, the only open major cc we have is maxed out (had to use it to buy gas the past few weeks - it was paid off before that) and we've got automated drafts coming out in a few days so we can't use the unemployment funds. Crap. I remind Will that my mom asked me the other day if we needed some money and I told her right then we were ok but if we needed it I would let her know. He said "Call her, we're out of options at this point."

So I called her. Or, attempted to anyway. Have I mentioned that their phone service sucks ass? Well, it does. I tried three times and was about to throw the phone across the room (yes, Nathan gets his temper from me - some of it anyway) when it rang. It was mom. "Have you been trying to call us?" The phone would ring once and then stop on her end, so she figured it was us. Heh. So I tell her what's up, and Will gets on the phone with my dad to let him know what size water heater and all that, and they head to Sears for us.

I get to work picking up and vacuuming (which I was going to do today anyway, promise) and Will goes to call the forestry service to see about a job. He "passed basic qualifications" several weeks ago, and the site still showed the job being open, but nobody has ever contacted him. He decided to just call and go by today. Found out the position has already been filled even though the site was never updated. Very disappointing. It would have been a federal job, an engineering job (hello, past five years not a waste, thank you), fifteen minutes from home. Sigh. Very disappointing.

My folks get here, Will and I throw together a quick lunch, and then he takes a cold shower and gets ready to leave for work. Dad realizes we don't have all the parts here that we need so Will plans to pick that stuff up tomorrow.

I need a break.

Meet The Mohawk Brothers

Aren't they cute?????

You may recall that we let Nathan start wearing a mohawk right before the end of the school year last year. We finally got around to cutting it into a mohawk again for this spring today, and Jacob has been clamoring for one too.

(And that's Sadie - Dana's kitty she was quick to remind me - that Nathan is holding.)

My world is in flood, slowly I become at one with the mud

(Betchie at least will "get" that title LOL)

I just wanted to post a couple of pictures of the flooding around here. These were taken Friday, so keep in mind this is three weeks after the initial heavy rain and flooding. I just read on the weather blog that this was the third wettest month in recorded weather history. Central Arkansas got 13-something inches.

This first picture is my husband and youngest son doing their best to give Mama a heart attack. I was driving home from the grocery store and happened to get behind them as they were heading home from geocaching. Then they pulled off to drive across the bridge which has been flooded out for three weeks. I had the camera with me so I backed up and took a picture in case I never got to see them again. (Just kidding, it's not that bad anymore. He's redneck, but he's not suicidal.) They're in the white truck in the middle of the bridge.

Believe it or not, less than two weeks ago all the road you can see on this side of the picture was under water. It has gone down a lot just in the past few days (they've been drawing the lake down some). This road is about a mile from our house.

This next picture is our neighbor's pond. They live at the bottom of the driveway. See how some of the trees are even in water? Normally at this time of the year the pond is getting close to being dried out all the way. Obviously that's not the case right now LOL.

GRADUATION weekend

We had a whirlwind, but fabulous, weekend. Friday night we went to a reception/awards ceremony where I realized that the wife of Will's classmate and friend was a girl that I knew from church camp years ago. That was fun. We'll get together with them sometime this summer when they come up in this area (her parents live up around here). After that we went out to a nice place for dinner.

Saturday was the BIG DAY. We got the kids all packed up and headed out. Will was afraid of being late because we had to stop at Walmart on the way, so we left early and I ended up sitting alone with the kids for two hours before the ceremony started. Yeah, that was fun. A lot of Will's friends came, he was so tickled to see so many people there that didn't "have" to be. All of my family came except for my brother who's in GA (military) and my sister who was in OK watching her new stepson graduate with a similar degree. He already has a job. Not fair. :p

After the ceremony we went and got checked into our hotel and called one of Will's friends who wanted to take us out. He and his family came by the hotel room and hung out for a bit. Then we all walked down the street to a pizza place. It was crazy loud in there but the food was awesome. We had, bar none, the best spinach dip I have ever tasted. We stayed and talked (or, shouted is more like it) until about ten and then the kids were about ready to drop on their feet so we walked back to the hotel and went to bed.

Sunday morning we got up and ate cold pizza and spinach dip for breakfast, and then went to the zoo. Hung out there for a few hours and then went to a park for a picnic lunch. I made the mistake of throwing a bread crust out to some geese that were walking by, we had to spend the next half hour frantically tossing torn up pieces of bread to keep them from coming right up on the table with us. After we got rid of the geese and the kids played on the playground for a while, we went out for ice cream and then went to Will's cousin Lynn's house boat (it was she that paid for this trip) to hang out and fish. The river was up so high and running so fast the fish weren't really biting, but Nathan snagged a turtle by the back leg and I caught two small catfish. We also saw a couple of water moccasins and I got sunburnt. Not too bad though, it's almost all faded now. Once we got tired of fishing Lynn took us out for Mexican for supper. Jacob set the emergency exit alarm off on the way back from the bathroom. Nathan was so embarrassed, I had to remind him that he did the same thing to me at Old Navy once.

After supper we went back to the hotel and let the kids swim in the indoor pool for a couple of hours before bed. They had the pool to themselves and had a blast. Jacob would walk back and forth from one side of the 3 foot area to the other with his little floaties on and exclaim "I'm SUCH a great swimmer!" every time he got over close to us.

Monday morning we got up and had breakfast at the hotel buffet (you could cook your own waffles and everything, so cool) and then went to the Museum of Discovery, which was right across the street from the hotel. The kids had a pretty good time, although it wasn't as much hands-on fun as the museum they're used to over here. A group of school kids acting like wild monkeys showed up around noon so we decided it was a good time to head out. We walked across to a popular catfish place for lunch. It was *really* good. We had talked about going at other times, but the line was always out the door and wrapped around the block the other times we passed by. Still busy when we went, but we only had about a fifteen minute wait for our food.

After lunch we walked to the trolley stop and rode the trolley all around the city and over the river. That was neat, very relaxing. Next time we go up to Little Rock for a concert or something we'll definitely have to park across town and ride the trolley, it stops right in front of the arena. After the trolley ride, it was time to head home. Thankfully we were only staying about an hour and a half from home, so we didn't have a ridiculous car ride back. The kids still all conked out about halfway home.

So, that was our weekend! We had a great time. Nathan was absolutely flabbergasted when he realized (on Sunday night) that he and Dana were going to miss school all day Monday for no reason other than to hang out and have fun. The look on his face was hilarious.

Just wanted to post a picture...

...of my GRADUATE.

Doesn't he look good in black and orange?

We're DONE. DONE. DONE!!!

Vacation pics

I don't remember if I mentioned this or not, but Will and I went to stay at a cabin in Eureka Springs for a couple of days this week while everyone was on spring break. The kids went to stay with my folks. It's the first time we've been anywhere without the kids since Dana was born, but we felt like they were all finally old enough to be without us for a couple of days. We had a lovely time.

We stayed in a private cabin about ten miles out of town. We were right on the edge of a valley (that statement pretty much describes our location no matter where we went, LOL) and I bet that later in the spring when the trees are green and blooming it's really beautiful down through there. It was so nice and relaxing to sit out on the porch swing and listen to the wind blow through the trees.

Here's a picture of the neighboring cabin, looking out from the right of our wrap-around porch. See how some of the trees have limbs that are snapped off and/or damaged? That's from the ice storm last winter. The damage up in that part of the state is staggering. In some places you would look out and almost every single tree - no matter how big - had the top snapped out of it. It's no wonder it was months before all the power was restored in some of those areas.

Here's a picture of our heart-shaped jacuzzi tub. Ahhhh. I miss that tub.

While we were there we visited the Christ of the Ozarks.

Next to the chapel there is an actual section of the Berlin Wall.

Very powerful to stand there and touch something that held so many people in bondage for so long. Loosely translated, this section of the wall says: And it goes even into the darkness. I have no anxiety! Psalm 23.

My husband, as some of you know, can't go anywhere without geocaching at least a little. Here are some deer who really wished we'd just move along already.

And here are a couple of pictures where you can get an idea of the ice storm damage.

This is the last 'vacationy' place we stopped at, the War Eagle Mill. We had a fabulous breakfast there (I had a whole grain waffle with blueberries and whipped cream - YUM) and then bought a bunch of yummy slow ground corn and wheat products, cherry butter, pumpkin butter, raw honey and sorghum, toys for the kids...lots of stuff.

OK there is a notice that blogspot is performing maintenance in a few minutes, so I'm going to post this while I can. Thanks for looking!

Wedding pics

You may recall my sister got married this past weekend. Just thought I'd share a few of the pics. :)

The ceremony was in my parents' house. There was probably 50 or so people there. Everything looked very nice.

One of her friends made the cake. It was fabulous, and I'm not much of a cake person. I wish now that we would have brought some of it home, heh.

Here's the minister, Bro. John, and the groom, Russell.

And here comes my sister, Pam, and my dad, Charles. (That's my oldest brother Robbie there to her right. And the picture on the wall behind him is my grandmother, who passed away in '92.)

Here's a picture of all of us together. L to R: My dad Charles, brother Robbie, sister Pam, me, brother Victor, mom Marie.

And here's a picture of Will and me under the arch. Nathan took this one, I thought he did a really good job.

All in all, everyone had a great time I think. I spent the night there Friday night so I could be up early Saturday morning helping them get the food and stuff together. We served finger foods - sandwiches, pigs in a blanket, fruit and veggie platters - along with the cake and punch. I told Will to be sure to get there on time, but not to be too early because I didn't want the kids tearing up the house, LOL. The pastor's wife and son did all the flowers and decorations. He owns his own floral shop and has such a great talent for it. They did the flowers for my wedding too.

Ha ha, after the ceremony I told Pam that she now holds the title in our family for the shortest wedding ceremony. Will and I walked in to ours at 2 pm and were walking back out at 2:10, but they managed to beat that. Just my kind of ceremony! Heh.

I'll post pictures from our vacation next, I want to make sure this all posts right.

Will applied for a Voluntary Severance at work yesterday

They had been hoping that work would pick back up in March (he has only worked a full week once since before Christmas - the rest of the time he's worked 0, 1, or 2 days per week) but it's not looking any better than it was, so they started offering a voluntary severance package. Based on the length of time he's been there, if he gets approved for it he'll get ten weeks of full pay with benefits before he's officially unemployed. That puts him at having a steady, full time paycheck again until after he GRADUATES IN MAY, plus he won't have to pay back any of the tuition reimbursement he's received (if he was to get another job and leave, he would have to pay it back) so we really feel this is the best course of action for us right now. The dept manager spoke with him for a while yesterday before he turned in his paperwork, and said they could work something out so that he could come in and work two nights steadily during the week (the reason his work has been so hit and miss is because he works the weekend shift and they just don't have enough work to keep it open right now) but he couldn't give him any kind of timeframe for when work would pick back up and he could get a full week's hours in again. So he'd actually be getting paid more by taking the severance package than by working.

He's got a lot of resumes out there for an engineering position, and has been to several interviews, but so far hasn't gotten an offer for anything. But, many places have expressed interest and are just waiting for him to GRADUATE IN MAY, so we aren't too worried about his ability to find something else. If worse comes to worse, we'll have most of the tax money in the bank still to tide us over for several weeks.

It'll be nice to have a semi-normal schedule with him again, instead of having to wait until Wednesday or Thursday to know if he's going to be at home on the weekend. The kids behave sooooo much better when he's here on a regular basis. He has daytime and evening classes both this semester, so even though he doesn't have many classes he's gone a good portion of the day and evening during the week.

He should find out next week if he was approved.

So if your tax e-file is ever rejected due to a wrong birthday on file...

...after almost a month of dealing with this, I can finally tell you how to take care of it!

First, go to your local social security administration, with your birth certificate, and have them correct the date. Be sure to ask them what the incorrect date on file is.

Then come home and e-file your taxes, using the incorrect birth date, because it's going to take several weeks for the system to update, and the only thing they use the birth date for is verification purposes. (This was the advice given to us by the IRS, by the way. And it worked.)

Voila! You're done!

FINALLY got our taxes approved by the IRS this morning. Hopefully the refund will deposit next Friday and they don't change the date on us.

For Jackie

I know it will probably be a few days before you see this, but I just wanted to share the lyrics to this song with you. It always brings me great comfort in times of loss.

The Valley Song ~ Jars of Clay

You have led me to the sadness
I have carried this pain
On a back bruised, nearly broken
I'm crying out to you

I will sing of Your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy

When death like a gypsy
Comes to steal what I love
I will still look to the heavens
I will still seek your face
But I fear you aren't listening
Because there are no words
Just the stillness and the hunger
For a faith that assures

I will sing of your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy

I will sing of your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy

Alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia, alleluia

While we wait for rescue
With our eyes tightly shut
Face to the ground using our hands
To cover the fatal cut
And though the pain is an ocean
Tossing us around, around, around
You have calmed greater waters
Higher mountains have come down

I will sing of your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy

Alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia, alleluia

I will sing of your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy

Just rambling

I'm bored. Most of the time I like not having TV anymore, sometimes I hate it. Tonight I hate it. I just want to go sit on my bed and watch something fluffy, and we don't have any new movies in from netflix yet and I've watched everything we own at least half a dozen times. Nothing's going on at any of my boards, Will's not home, and I am BORED. I guess I could go find some good X-Files fanfic to read.

I saw the dietician Wednesday. As I suspected, she didn't really have a whole lot of info to share that I didn't already know. She suggested 1600 calories a day for me, but since I make so much of my stuff from scratch it makes it very hard to keep up with exact numbers, so she said I could try to focus on having no more than 45 grams of carbs per meal plus one snack, and 40 grams of fat or less per day. I've been keeping a food journal to see how close I can get to that. So far (two days of journaling) I've not done too well with the fat (though much of the fat in my meals is from EVOO or canola oil, and nuts for the snacks, which is all good for you so I have a hard time making myself cut that out, kwim?) but the calories and carbs have been pretty good. She wants to see me again in two weeks to "see how I'm doing". That last part makes me bristle because I don't like being made to feel that I have to please someone by what I eat, but if nothing else I can take my daily journal with me so she can see just what kinds of things I normally eat. I find that people have a really hard time believing that someone that looks like me actually knows how to make healthy food choices. She already knows that I refuse to use artificial sweeteners or things that are so chemically altered they no longer resemble anything found in nature, so that battle has already been fought. Heh.

Oh but along those lines, I had to stop at Sonic for breakfast yesterday after my appointment. I got a small strawberry/banana smoothie (thinking fresh fruit and nonfat yogurt would be a good choice, right?) along with a junior breakfast burrito and half a kiddie order of tater tots (Jacob was riding back home with me and wanted something too). I got home and looked up Sonic's nutritional info to journal it and about FELL OUT OF MY CHAIR. The smoothie I got - small size! - was almost 500 calories and 113 g of carbs! Just the smoothie! CRIPES. I'll pick up some plain yogurt and fruit at the store tomorrow and make my own blasted smoothies, it'll probably taste better too.

We still haven't been able to file our federal taxes. I called the local SS office today on the off chance that they would let me correct Will's birthday over the phone, no go. Ah well, he'll make it down there some day soon. I hope.

Oh! We did get to go to Date Night after all, the kids were all feeling fine Saturday. Woo! It was fun. The dinner was pretty good (spaghetti and meatballs, salad, garlic bread, cheesecake) and the movie was great! There were several scenes that had everybody in there howling with laughter, and a few scenes that had everyone either cheering or yelling at the screen. Good times. :) Oh and they had guys come out to the car to escort the ladies in, and people at the front door to usher the kids off to their rooms, and a photographer to take your picture (under an arch with flowers and everything, I felt like I was at the prom! LOLOL). They went to a one hour photo shop and had the pictures developed while we were watching the movie so they could be picked up on the way out, I thought that was really nice. The kids got to have pizza and games and a movie. All in all, a very fun evening.

Then the next day we got to go to my sister's wedding shower, that was fun too. Dana and I conspired to snatch a few new towels and the ladies hosting the shower tried to make off with the stand mixer. Heh. I told Will we need to get married again so we can rake in some loot! She got lots of nice stuff. Dana and Nathan wanted to give her something too, so we bought a couple of azalea plants and tagged them from the kids. I thought that was cute. :)

Since we had to head down there right after church, I was wearing my tiechel. Nobody even commented on it, ha. I figured mom at least would ask about it.

On the radio yesterday they were talking about all the security measures taken while returning the KFC hand-written original recipe to the Kentucky museum, it was so funny. A briefcase handcuffed to a guard with the recipe inside and everything. One of the DJ's was saying it reminded her of Plankton on Spongebob and all the lengths they have to go to, to protect the Krabby Patty secret recipe. HEE.

Hey did ya'll know that the earth originally had a 360-day year? (Go re-read the account of the Flood, and pay attention to the dates given.) And that the shift in the center of gravity because of the Flood is most likely the reason that we now have a 365.xxx-day year? And that according to Revelation, the earth will once again be restored to a 360-day year? Like, before the end of the world? That kind of stuff FASCINATES me, ya'll.

Which reminds me - I literally burst out laughing at a guy on Ben Stein's movie 'Expelled' when he said that he can't think of anything more BORING than the human body being the result of Intelligent Design. I can't think of anything LESS boring. What a dweeb.

Ah, Ben Stein. He was lecturing at a university about an hour from here this week. How we would've loved to have gone!!! Alas.

TTFN!

Oh, yippee

Normally Will and I take our taxes to the library to have them filed for free (by retired CPA's) but this year he is having trouble finding the time to go, so I thought I'd bite the bullet and file them through TurboTax. I spent the better part of four hours today wading through molasses and quicksand getting them filled out and e-filed....and a few minutes ago got a rejection email from the IRS. Apparently Will's birthday is on file wrong somewhere and it's tossing it out because of it. UGH UGH UGH. We can still mail them in and be fine, but it'll take up to six weeks to get our refund doing that, versus two weeks by e-file. Sigh.

In other news, I just finished reading Saddam's Secrets by Georges Sada today. WOW. If you still have any doubt that the WMD's ever really existed and the war against Iraq was justified, go find that book at the library (or order it off amazon like I did, it's less than $20) and read it, STAT. I don't know how many times I put that book down and exclaimed "Dear GOD!" I wish I could just go find GWB and give him a big hug and tell him I'm sorry for everything he's had to endure over this.

Will and I get to go to the date night at church tomorrow night...if everybody is well. Nathan stayed home from school today, and Dana doesn't look too perky either. Hopefully everybody will be feeling better by tomorrow afternoon.

WHY WILL MY FOUR YEAR OLD NOT JUST STAY IN THE FLIPPING BED?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BETCHIE!!!!!!!

Sending great big HUGS and SMOOCHIES to one of my dearest friends in the world!!!

I am thankful for your friendship, and I hope you have a great day.

Fireproof

Have any of ya'll seen this yet? They're having a Date Night at church next Saturday and will be showing Fireproof after dinner. I hope Will and I get to go. Of course that would mean he would have to not be working that night, but the way things are going right now it wouldn't surprise me any.

Speaking of work, he worked Friday night 7 pm to 7 am, called me around 9:30 am to ask me something about the tires he was buying, and then emailed me from work about 10:15 am. I emailed him back and asked him if he got ANY sleep at all (he had planned to go crash for a few hours before going back to work) and he responded with "Sleep?! Sleep?! I don't need no stinkin' sleep." >:/ At least he made it home ok (around 7 last night).

The church is having a shower for my sister next Sunday. We'll head down that way after church. My brothers and parents and I all went together to get them a stand mixer. She's been wanting one for the Christmas cookies and stuff that she makes each year but couldn't justify the price, so this was a nice reason to get her one. Ha ha, I don't think I remembered to tell ya'll the funny story about the quilt my mom gave her for Christmas. It's one she's had made up for years from a quilt top my grandma had done, she had planned to give it to my sister when she got married but finally gave up this year and gave it to her for Christmas...which was when she announced she's getting married. I got a good laugh out of that.

Nathan was being a pest this morning and sat in Dana's seat on the way to church, so when we got to church she asked him to hand her Bible to her out of the car pocket. He kind of tossed it at her and Jacob yelled at him in horror "NATHAN! That's GOD'S WORD!!!" ROFL. That's my boy.

I had an interesting thought about Biblical prophecy earlier. It fascinates me that so much of what was prophesied about the Messiah was not able to be understood until after the fact - I think there's a reason for that. I think it's because if prophecy was really clear and easy to figure out, it would be too easy to manufacture a false fulfillment of the prophecy.

It also fascinates me that so much of what Jesus himself referred to as fulfillment of prophecy, if you look back at the original text in the OT it almost seems as though he's taking it out of context. A good example is when Jesus is predicting Peter's denial and quotes "I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered." If you look up the reference (Zecheriah 13) it doesn't seem to have a thing in the world to do with the Messiah or anything surrounding him, but Jesus himself ties the two together. Fascinating...

Will's birthday cake

You may recall that I had ordered a cake topper for Nathan's birthday that got here the day after his birthday? Well, Betchie had the fabulous idea to turn it into a topper for Will's birthday cake.

Hee. He got the biggest kick out of it.

I'm baaaack!

Yeah, I know - nobody even noticed I was gone. Except for Sel, who called me this morning. Heh. But still, I am back!

Our computer finally died for good and we had to replace it. Thankfully Will's school money came in the same day so we were able to do so, LOL.

Will's still down to two work days a week. He's trying to find out how to file for partial unemployment, but they don't make it easy.

We're iced in today. Will made spaghetti and meat bombs for lunch, it was delish!

I was supposed to have an appointment with a dietician tomorrow but if the temp doesn't go up considerably I'll have to reschedule it.

I ordered a tuner for my violin off ebay this morning, looking very forward to finally learning how to play it.

Did you know it was nearly impossible to find just a cute, plain, not obscenely short, denim skirt in a girl's size 12 anymore? Ugh. Thank goodness for ebay. Dana doesn't have any skirts that "match" more than one shirt (and the matching shirts are all the wrong size, LOL) so I promised her I would get her a denim skirt so she could make some outfits. I didn't know it was going to take an act of congress when I made that promise.

I ordered the kids' new backpacks finally. I had promised them new ones before school started (Nathan's old one is currently being held together with safety pins - thank you Lord that he's too young and too 'boy' to care LOL) but we just did not have the money then to do so. So I told them it was top priority when Will's school money came in. Not only did I order them both one, but I also went ahead and ordered one for Jacob, who STARTS KINDY THIS FALL. Can you believe it?!? I can't. I just can't fathom all of my kids being in school. It's going to take some getting used to. He's going to love school, I think. He's still a bit clingy with me but not like he used to be, and he's smart as a WHIP.

OH - Sunday morning I walked into church and was crossing over to go to my seat and I saw someone sitting in a seat that has been vacated for several months. I thought 'Oh, Lord God, is that who I think it is?' I shot a quick little glance that way as I passed by and it was! I almost cried. Our friends Mike and Ursula are back together and back home. Ursula had left Mike and she and their daughter moved to Florida several months ago, I never knew all the details (I think Mike may have shared with Will, but I didn't consider it any of my business so I didn't ask) but we've really been praying for them. Mike moved to FL a couple of months ago to be closer to the baby, I guess they worked everything out while he was there. I'm so happy to see them back home.

We had a new guest speaker (speakers I guess - it was a couple) at church Sunday. Really enjoyed them. The wife was born in Russia and was a teenager when the Iron Curtain came down, the husband is from Kansas. She grew up in an atheist home, and became a Christian when her younger brother brought home a paper to practice his English by one day, it was a pamphlet that had been given to him by missionaries handing them out on the street. He didn't know what it was and got in terrible trouble with their parents over it. She smuggled it into her room and read through it and came to Christ without any further knowledge of Him or the Bible. Isn't that something? It was years later (when the wall came down) that she was able to read a Bible for the first time.

Her husband also told a really neat story, about a guy that would hand out Bibles in Iraq. He became frustrated after so many Muslims would take the Bibles and in defiance rip the covers off and throw them down after he handed them one, and decided that he wasn't doing any good and was going to quit. He went into the Bible bookstore where they were holding Bibles for him that he had already paid for to tell them he didn't need them, and saw a Muslim cleric in there. He was a little taken aback at seeing this guy in there, so he started talking to him. The Muslim shared that he was actually a Christian, but since he was able to move about and share more freely if he kept his old job and all, that to others he still appeared to be a Muslim. The missionary asked him how he came to know Christ, and the guy told him that he's always loved books and one day he saw something that caught his interest. It was a brand new book laying on the ground with the cover ripped off. He took it home with him to see what it was, of course it was one of the Bibles that missionary himself had handed out. Incredible.

And so it begins

Last weekend Will had to patch in a shift at work because his regular shift (7 pm to 7 am) wasn't going to be working. This weekend, tonight is going to be his only regular night. He'll work as many hours as he can tomorrow night, and Sunday won't be able to go in at all.

Sigh. In a way, it would be easier if they would just lay him off (they did a lot of layoffs this week too) so he could know what his schedule is going to be from week to week. He's going to look into filing for partial unemployment since he's having to miss due to lack of work.

Now on to the response to 'Sprechen Sie Toddler' - since I can't ever seem to respond on Betch's blog anymore, this is easier. Hopefully I can remember all the questions -

Sound of Music - love it! I think my favorite Von Trapp child is probably Brigita, though Greta is a little doll too. Least favorite is Louisa, though I'm not sure why. She just grates. Didn't really have a crush on Rolf, but the Captain on the other hand...hubba hubba.

Mispronunciations - Nathan still calls bumble bees 'bum bum bees' and I love it. I hope nobody ever corrects him, I think it's adorable. Dana is still called Grrr to this day because that's how she said 'girl' when she was a toddler. She loved the Powerpuff Grrrs. Heh. Jacob says 'upsad' instead of 'upset' which I think is cute, and appropriate in a weird way.

Oh and about clothes that I won't wear out of the house - hmmm. Probably the shirts I wear around the house that have holes in them. That's all I can think of.

Betch, I hate your blog

Just want you to know. I keep trying to respond (have for a few days now) and it keeps timing out on me. Urgh.

I had a huge crush on Kirk Cameron back in the day. Never got the Jake Ryan love, although I think I'm the only female that can make that claim LOL.

I love it when Will gets me flowers. He surprises me with daisies or carnations or other inexpensive bouquets from the store often. :) One day he was grocery shopping with me and Jacob, and he had to take Jake to the bathroom and they came back with a bouquet for me. This lady in the aisle with us said "AWWWWW, what a lucky lady you are." I agreed with her.

You've already chosen your new music I know, but lately we've really been into Flyleaf, Fireflight, Plumb, Superchic(k), and other "girl" bands.

I can't remember if you've asked anything else recently.

In other news, I had a doctor's appointment today to discuss the hernia and lack of surgery thing. I think she was a little ticked at the surgeon (I could hear some of the stuff she was saying while she was out in the hall trying to find out what his deal was) but after about an hour she came back in and said that anybody else I see is pretty much going to tell me the same thing, so..... Not a whole lot I can do about it right now, just try not to aggrevate the hernia as much as possible and if I ever have acute abdominal pain that won't go away when I lay down to get to an ER as soon as I'm able.

Will got an offer to apply for a job with Entergy in Lake Charles, LA. Neither one of us really wants to move, but he feels he should apply for it anyway and go from there (I agree with him - didn't mean to word that to make it sound like I don't even want him to apply). I'm glad to see him getting offers. Especially since it's a reminder that HE GRADUATES IN MAY. I cannot possibly be excited enough about that!!!!!

I started a Chronological read through the Bible plan the other day. It's really eye-opening to look at the events of the Bible as they actually happened in relation to each other.

Gonna wrap this up before the computer reboots. We've been having major issues lately. Major.

Oh, and Betch -

Will got the biggest kick out of his "Nathan's Dad" Star Wars cheesecake. I'll have to get a picture of it up here.

Forgot to mention

I started wearing my tiechel to church this past Sunday. One lady commented that I looked "very pretty" that morning. I thought that was sweet.

I wore it this time according to the directions at coveryourhair.com except that I left the ends trailing down my back after tying up the bun instead of tucking them in. I think I'll probably just wear it over my loose hair most of the time, but it was nice to be able to put all my hair up (I can't get it to stay in a bun normally).

IS IT BEDTIME YET?!?!?!?! The kids are CRAZY tonight. They are acting like they were raised by wolves. (That might actually be a little too mean for the poor wolves.)

Well, crud

I found the mistake in the checkbook. I had transposed a 67 into a 76 in one of the deposits. Good news - we got a $10 rebate check in the mail yesterday that will cover it. Bad news - we have to drive 45 minutes into town to deposit it.

But that's better than a $25 NSF fee, right?

In other news, I sent an email to the church yesterday to let them know my surgery had been cancelled (the associate pastor had been keeping up with my situation). They emailed back asking if it was ok for them to add me to the prayer list in the weekly bulletin. My first thought - 'Oh, I'm not worth all that trouble'. Why is it so difficult for me to realize that someone other than my closest circle of family and friends cares about me? Ugh.

I can't get my checkbook to balance

I HATE IT when that happens. It's down to the last four outstanding entries, and I've checked it and re-checked it and re-re-checked it, and it still won't balance. GARRRR.

The time is coming

Matthew 13

24Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
27"The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?'
28" 'An enemy did this,' he replied. "The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'
29" 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' "

36Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."
37He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
40"As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.


Man, ya'll.... Never before have I felt so strongly - and without any alarm, just a deep sense of knowing - that we are walking through the days leading up to the End of Days. I don't think we're quite to the end yet, but (to quote LOTR) 'the board is set, the pieces are moving.'

I see the weeds being pulled, all around. What a time to be alive!

Goodbye, 2008

I wish I could say you'll be missed but to be quite honest, you pretty much sucked. So, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Hello, 2009! May you be infinitely better.