Photo Hunters

This weeks theme is practical. It took me a while to think of something that is practical to me in my everyday life. I finally decided on what to chose while I was brushing my daughters hair. She has long hair and for her and me it is very practical to keep it in braids or ponytails as long as it is pulled back. Here's a picture of her with her hair down and long (kind of like Rapunzel I think).




Now here is a much more practical hair style for a very busy little girl. Now I know I am totally biased here but I think she looks lovely either way.

But if your looking for something a bit more masculine than talks of practical hair styles then perhaps this next picture will interest you. It is a picture of the "Jaws of Life" tool that will cut you free from a crushed car if you should ever have the need. Very practical indeed. Although I really was expecting some much larger than this. I mean you hear so much about them I truly thought they would be bigger.
Regardless, there is nothing like a big macho tool like that to make the men feel better about having to look at my daughter's golden locks. Hope you like my take on this weeks practical theme.

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Eat More Beans!

I had this talk with K. this morning driving in the car.

K: Mom, your not strong enough to carry me upside down anymore like daddy.

Me: K. your getting so big that I can't carry you for that long upside down. Your right, daddy is much stronger.

K: Yep, daddy is stronger. He eats all his beans. You need to eat all your beans to if you want to be big and strong like daddy and carry me upside down.

What should you be for Halloween?

I found this cute quiz about what I should be for Halloween. Not quite sure how I ended up as this but I guess there could be worse things out there.

Your Halloween Costume Should Be

Elvis

What Should You Be For Halloween?

The New Math

My husband is ready to retire. No, I really mean it. My husband who isn't quite forty is ready to retire. The only problem of course is money. So we have been reviewing all the things we are going to have to do in order for my husband to retire at his dream age of 55. We really aren't doing to bad considering I have been out of the work force for about five of the last seven years and haven't really been able to contribute much financially to our retirement plans. But we are still way off from where we need to be in order for us to reach his goal. And while neither of us are big spenders and aren't the type that have to "have stuff" to be happy, we do spend money on the things we like to do.

But last night my husband took the cake with his latest ways in thinking about big purchases. He has been saving up for a mill for a while now and has finally reached his goal. He went online only to find out that the mill he really wants is now on sale so he can even save a couple hundred dollars. Now to me that would have just been the icing on the cake. But since my husband had just finished reviewing where we need to be in twenty years he wasn't as excited as I expected. He stopped for a minute and went to punch in some numbers on the computer. Then he came back and told me that if he invested his money into our investments instead of buying the mill then by the time he was ready to retire he would have about $50,000 more towards our retirement goals.

So now he's wondering if this mill he has been saving up for is worth the fifty thousand it could cost us in the long term. And while I can see his point I am a bit frustrated. So I had to remind him that he's been saving up for this for a long time and he'll need to have something to keep him happy and entertained while we sit home for the next fifteen years and save money for retirement. And that it's okay for him to buy something big like that every now and then. But as to whether he can now get past that new price tag he has in his head, I really don't know. I hope he does. He works way to hard now not to have a few things to enjoy in his life now.

Wordless Wednesday

Hoss and K. share the same ambition for when they grow up. Can you guess what it is?















For other Wordless Wednesdays click here.

A Pink Truck

K. has decided that she wants a pink truck. She is getting pretty darn adamant about it also. Not just any pink truck, she wants one of those big Power Wheels pink trucks that she can drive around outside with. She has been asking me for weeks now and I keep telling her no since they cost to much money and since Hoss has a truck that she can drive around. The only thing is that Hoss's truck isn't pink it's burgundy. So that means that it's not the right color.

She is now telling me that she will just have to ask Santa for one since it cost mommy and daddy to much money. (She is so considerate in thinking that way isn't she). So I have switched tactics telling her that we really don't have the space in the garage for another big truck like that to fit. She just smiles sweetly and says don't worry mommy, it will fit as long as you keep your van outside. She is now telling any one and everyone who will listen that she is going to get a pink truck from Santa...and it's only October. I have even stooped to showing her all the commercials for toys on TV as they gear up for the holidays. I'll try and convince her that this toy would be so much more fun for her than a truck but she just smiles sweetly and says she wants her very own pink truck to drive.

Truly, I knew we were going to have issues with who gets to drive what car and when but I really wasn't expecting it to happen while the kids were still in grade school. Instead now we are having issues of who gets to drive what Power Wheels and when and who gets to use the battery that is fully charged. These toys that give my kids so many hours of fun are truly starting to wear me out. As for whether or not she will get a new Pink Truck, I really don't know. I don't want to give up the extra space but once she starts to work on daddy, who knows what he will come home with. He is so easily swayed by his girls.

What a Weekend

I had a wonderful weekend. I was blessed enough to be able to go and spend three and half days with a wonderful bunch of women from my church community at an ACTS retreat. The time spent there refreshed me both mentally and spiritually. Once again I was reminded of the love that our Lord has for us.

I wish I could say that my husband had as blessed a weekend as I did. But poor thing, his weekend was much more difficult for him. My children did not really cooperate for him and proved extremely difficult for him. But by late last night he was looking a lot better than when I first saw him.


For I know the plans I have made for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a future full of hope. Jer. 29:11

Wordless Wednesday

Another Crazy Week

It's another busy week. With my family in town we are busy running around. I am also going on a church retreat this weekend so will be gone later this week. So I am trying to prepare for that as well. Hopefully next week will be a bit more settled and I can get back to the business of blogging.

Photo Hunters

This weeks theme is curvy.

I immediately thought of all the curvy paths that are around our home. But instead I decided to go ahead and go with my second impulse. And that was the art of glass blowing. I received my favorite vase from a dear friend of mine while we were living in Finland and I treasure it more because of that. It is an Aalto free form wave vase. I find it's style very unusual but very appealing to me. For more on the history of this vase click here.



After looking at the delicate curve of the glass I was reminded of another curve made of much stronger material and one which I am so thankful to have available if the need ever arose. It's the spray hose nozzle from the top of a firetruck that my children and I climbed all over and explored last week. Not quite as delicate as the vase but still amazing at how they can curve metal/steel like that and still have it be functional under extreme use.

So that's my take on this week's theme. For other participants views click PhotoHunt


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Happy Birthday Hoss!

Hoss celebrated his fifth birthday yesterday. It's hard to believe that he is five already. He's quite proud to be five since that now means he is an entire hand of fingers. We just had the small family celebration yesterday but he enjoyed all the cupcakes he had at school along with the birthday cake he had at home. Meanwhile all the rest of the kids are completely on board with anyone having a birthday since it usually means two pieces of cake instead of the normal one they are allowed. (Since most the time all they do is lick the icing off anyway, it's a great way to get the cake out of the house). I guess I should just serve a spoonful of icing and call it cake, I really don't know if they would notice the difference or even care.

A Day at the Vet

I have finally won the battle. The battle I am talking about is getting our dog Gigi spayed. My poor husband has been begging to breed her since the day we got her. I always pleaded off saying that there was no way that I can handle having puppies along with the four kids. And then to deal with the kids heartbreak when the puppies would go to new homes. It just wasn't something that I wanted to do. So I have finally convinced him to go ahead and get it done. So I wasted no time at all and scheduled her appointment for the first available one.

So Gigi is at the vets today and we will pick her up tomorrow. I now no longer have to worry about her getting out of the yard while she is in heat. I don't have to deal with doggie diapers on top of the baby diapers and the male dogs in our neighborhood will hopefully stop howling around the times she was in heat. My poor husband is still a little sad but I think he'll manage just fine. After all he is now a responsible pet owner.

A Week out of Whack

It's going to be an out of whack week around here. My dear hubs is off this week. So just by the fact that he is here and we can do things means that my normal schedule is off. Add to it, that Hoss celebrates his 5th birthday on Wed. and that just adds to the unusual schedule. So since we have been out and about today, none of my usual things have gotten done. So now I'm off to play catch up.

Photo Hunters- Original

This weeks theme is original.

Since I'm trying to be original this week it was a little harder to come up with something. What I finally decided on was my husband's beer can collection. His collection is on proud display in the back shelf of our very dark closet.

Here are two JR Ewing (from the TV show Dallas) beer cans. They are filled with the original beer and still have the original pull tabs on them.
Here are some more original beer cans from his collection but most of these no longer have the original beer or pull tabs on them.


For other participants in this weeks Photo Hunt visit TNCHICK.com

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Middle Name Meme

Nicole tagged me with this one.

So. The rules:
1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players - You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don't have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3.At the end of your post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.


A- I think that I am a bit adventurous. I'm always willing to try something new at least once.

N- Sometimes people think that I am a bit to Nosy. I just really like hearing about all the things going on.

N- I hope my children think that I am nurturing. At least that's what I'm trying for most days.

E- My kids wake up at the crack of dawn, which makes me an early bird. Completely against my choice by the way. I'd much rather sleep in.

I am going to tag Kim and anyone else who wants to do this meme. (I know, I know I broke rule #3). Just let me know if you do it so I can check out your answers.

The Newest Who in Who-ville

Poor Gigi

Poor Gigi, She just can't do anything right with me. I now have a new way my Boxer annoys me. It's not the fact that she is huge and not really anything like the kind of dog that I really wanted (i.e. she isn't a toy). It's not the fact that the dog for whatever reason insists on drinking gallons of water at one time only to turn around and throw it all up just five minutes later. Sometimes even on me. Or that she will just sit there and whine at you until you play with her. It's not even the fact that the dog wakes me up by licking my face in the morning. Although these things really do annoy me.

No, the new reason for me to not like my dog is that she has now brought fleas into my home. It really isn't her fault, I do know this. I haven't been consistent on keeping her Advantix on her this summer. But when my neighbor told me about five days ago that they had just found fleas I knew it would be only a matter of days until they would invade our yard and thus get on our dog and then make their nasty ways into my house. So I did put the Advantix on Gigi and I have been watching and waiting. And sure enough, she didn't disappoint me. She has been scratching just a bit to much.

So I gave her a pretend belly scratch while I was really looking for fleas. She however didn't know this and thought she had won the belly rub lottery or something.

Once I found the first little booger, her poor belly scratching lottery ended. And outside she went while I figured out how to get rid of them.

I called the vet first and found out I can spend five dollars on a 24 hour pill that will kill all the fleas on her. Then I called the exterminator and they will come out and blast the outside and inside of the home. Meanwhile, Hoss just thought he would try and sweep the pesky fleas off of Gigi. But sadly it didn't help to do anything except get Gigi all excited to play.

So now that just leaves me to vacuum the furniture and shampoo the area rugs like a mad woman. And hopefully in the process my poor Gigi will feel better to. Because let's face it, she is living with those nasty things on her.

Where are they now

My husband and I were talking the other day about our college years. Neither of us had talked to our roommates recently and we were wondering how they were doing and what was going on in their lives. Well it was only a few days later that I got a call from my roommate Jennifer telling me that she was getting married. Naturally I was super excited for her. But then she went on to tell me that they were having a bridal shower only 45 minutes away and would I want to come. Now since I hadn't seen her in about eight years I jumped at the chance.

So the evening of the shower when we finally got a chance to sit down and start to visit we naturally went down memory lane. Here's a picture of Jenn and me. (I'm in the white shirt)


There were three of us there catching up that night. Me, Jennifer and Lanie who was her sister, but with us alot of times. It was at this time that we were laughing so hard my sides hurt and Jenn's poor fiance was just sitting there listening to some of the stories being told in disbelief. Because what one of us had forgotten the others were there to remind us of. I have to admit to completely forgetting all about the shutting down of three dorms worth of study halls during finals because of a shadow strip tease. But once they reminded me of this it all came back in an instant.

We then got to talking about how different our paths have taken us from where we used to be. Now I am a stay at home mom to four children. No one knowing me then would ever believe this of me now. Lanie is now a principal at a Catholic School here in Texas. Even her family is confused at times of how she ended up there. And Jennifer is working in at law firm and finally getting married and ready to start her family. So now here is a picture of where we are now. Here's me, Lanie and Jennifer and if you look closely you will still see some empty beer bottles and glasses of wine around us. I guess we haven't changed all that much after all.


As for Mike, her fiance, I bet he is wondering what other things we got up to in our good ol' college days.

Passing the Torch

My sweet friend Kim recently awarded me with the Nice Matters award. I've known Kim for a while now and I think she is a great lady also. She is always so strong in her beliefs and always faces new challenges head on. So now it is time for me to pass it on to someone else. Now I am faced with the same dilemma that my friend Nan had. It seems like everyone has already received this award. So she made a few changes to her button to make it look different.

So I am hoping that even if you have received this award in the past that you may still be excited to be told that I think your nice and yes it does still matter. So I would like to pass this on to two great women.

First I'll start with Lauren over at Baseballs and Bows. She is always so positive in her posts and all the comments that she leaves for everyone. She just seems to me like a super nice gal and I really enjoy her blog. So I hope this will brighten her day just a bit.

Second is my friend in "real" life Nicole over at 4andcounting. I guess I am a little biased because I know she truly is nice in person as well as on her blog. I consider her a true friend and I also hope this will make her smile a bit today.

So even if both you ladies have received this before I hope you will still enjoy getting it again.

Just for the Record

My pain in my neck for all eternity big brother emailed me the other day. And while that isn't really all that surprising since I do hear from him on a pretty regular basis, this email was different. This was not because my pain my my neck for all eternity brother actually spelled everything correctly for a change. No this was because my pain in the neck for all eternity brother had read my blog for the very first time. And although he was very kind in his words about how cool he thought the blog was, he had a few other comments about some of the content on it.

In particular, he had issue about my post where I was contemplating getting a maid service twice a month. For whatever reason he seems to think that my house was never spotless at anytime when I had only one child. And now that I have four, well let's just say I could hear him laughing from 750 miles away. That dumb ol' pain in my neck for all eternity brother of mine. Naturally, I had to correct my brother's incorrect assumption that my house was ever spotless after I had one child. So I set about thinking of how I could prove it to him. Then I realized I couldn't. My pain in my neck for all eternity brother of mine was... gulp...right.

Now since I am his pesky little sister I can't have this. So I went ahead and emailed him back that yes he was right my house probably wasn't so spotless when he came to visit me when I only had my oldest child Z. But then I had to point out that he never came to visit our house between the time that I had Hoss and K. So what does this mean exactly, well it means that for all he knows (and let's face it what big brother ever really knows more than a little sister) my house was spotless. He was never there to prove it otherwise. So there! How's that my pain in my neck for all eternity big brother. I have admitted to my few readers that yes my house wasn't spotless when I had only one child. But since you were never in my home until after K. was born that gives me at least two years of a pretty clean house if I do say so myself.

Yeeeessss, the pesky little sister wins again!!!