missing her

I am missing my daughter this morning.

We had 5 full days of her, and only had to share her once.

I know I may go a little overboard with the whole missing her thing. She is only at high school after all. But when you spend almost everyday together for 14 years it is a total adjustment.

So humor me.

Wednesday: first day of Thanksgiving break, technically she slept in until noon, but I wasn't about to complain. And when she got up and wanted to make us all pancakes, I didn't have the heart to point out it was noon and that we had already eaten, so I just smiled and said sure!

Thursday: Thanksgiving! Again the sleeping until noon, but when my youngest finally couldn't take it anymore and went and crawled in bed with her, it was worth the wait. No pancakes today, she was ready for chips and dip.

Friday: We watched movies and played with the kittens, and I don't think anyone argued with eachother the whole day! Heaven!


Saturday: ok here's where things start to get a little ugly. When she woke up I asked her if she wanted to get the Barbie house out for the girls, and play Barbies with us....................
I think I pushed it just a little too far, because at that exact moment the phone rang and she sprinted to it as if her life depended on it!
So, yes she spent the day at a friends house, but she didn't want to sleep over, she wanted to come home and watch a movie with me. I tried not to cry.

Saturday: I helped her with some homework ( what kind of teacher gives homework on a holiday vacation?) we ate pie for lunch, went to the movies with some friends, ate pie for dinner.

Sunday: We spent a great day together as a family. I think I saw her Dad give her 2 or 3 hugs throughout the day, he obviously misses her too, just hides it better. That night she asked me to come help her pick out some outfits for the week. I tried not to cry. She knows this is my favorite thing to do and not always hers.

Just maybe she's beem missing us too.

I'm Thankful for complete strangers

We do that corny tradition of sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner and going around the table and everyone has to say what they are thankful for. No matter how corny it is, I always end up crying though.

I guess there's nothing corny about being thankful.

This year one of the things I would like to say I am thankful for is blogging.

I can just see my family though, after I say this.

( cue crickets chirping..... )

They would think I had lost it.

But I know you would all get it.

So, imagine us all at a table together and it's my turn, and I'm saying I am so thankful for you. I can't wait until heaven someday and God shows you how that one story you told, that one scripture you wrote, that one picture you posted........... helped me that day.

Happy Thanksgiving

if you get bored.

I just thought I would share a few websites that I think have the best information.

With my oldest daughter home for Thanksgiving break I will most likely be sleeping in! Yeah!
I normally get up at 6 am and take her to the bus. Yes, I have to take her to the bus.
We live out in the boonies country and the bus meets at one spot to collect all the hillbillies kids.

Who is loving the strikethrough button? me!

Anyway, I usually come home and have an hour to myself, and that is when I write and read blogs.
But the next few days I will be sleeping in! Yeah!

Already said that.

So I will leave you with some sites to go check out.

http://www.kids-in-mind.com/
This gives detailed information about what is in a movie, like how many bad words, intimate scenes, etc. I don't watch a PG13 movie without checking it out here first.

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/index.php
This site is great if your trying to be as healthy as you can in regards to dangers in cosmetics. Like some mascaras contain mercury. I try and buy the most chemical free products I can. Please don't be hate me if it tells you your favorite lipstick is poisonious. Put in the lotion, makeup, shampoo you use in the search button and see the results.

http://www.slashfood.com/2009/09/01/candy-bar-id-quiz/
Ok this isn't really information, but it's fun. And I got every one right. That's sad.

http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/howto.html
I don't think you can actually start doing this until January, but I like to be prepared. Am I the only one that thinks this sounds fun? Teenage daughter thinks I am.



http://www.fairmont.com/banffsprings
I hope to go here someday. It's like a huge castle in the mountains. Breathtaking! Has anyone ever heard of this place or been?

Who is loving the linky button? me!

My computer caught Swine Flu

Our computer caught Swine Flu a virus last week.
So, I wasn't able to get on the internet all week.
Oh how I missed you all.

That seems weird.

But I really did.

And my daughter about lost it, not being able to check everyones status on her Myspace.
And now she has a Facebook account too.

Those both make me nervous.

That seems weird too.

I go on there often with her and see what's going on and what her friends are talking about. I monitor her pictures she puts on there. I make her delete friends that are constantly cussing and being inapropriate.

It's kindof tiring though.

And she gets so annoyed when I ask to go on there with her and ask to see so and so's pictures , or ask "what does that mean when he says that..?"

But I figure if I'm tired and she's annoyed, I must being doing something right. :)

Gotta go.
I got lots of catching up on your lives reading to do.

Thank you

I have a totally different post in mind that will have to wait for another day, because I just had to say this first.

Friday I played Kellie's carnival, just because I thought it would be fun and I really didn't have much to say anyway.

I got a few comments. (Yah! Comments are so fun!)
But what was said, well that just overwhelmed me.

I know that most of you have been blogging for awhile and truly get this whole community that is formed here. I actually started my blog over a year ago, but it hasn't been until recently that I get why I'm doing it.
I have done my share of leaving an encouraging comment or praying for a situation that I have read about, from the Mom who is feeling overwhelmed that day to a dieing Father I will never even meet until Heaven someday. It's been like a little gift for me actually, to be able to pray for people I don't even know. I'm a stay at home mom, homeschooling my kids, trying to be everything I can for my husband, and it doesn't leave alot of time to feel like I'm doing much of anything for the Lord. So being able to lift perfect strangers up in prayer,that's a gift.

Then I do this fun little carnival and God reminds me how much He loves me.
I was trying to make a point about my clean house, not solicit some prayers. But they came anyway.
This weekend everytime I looked at my husband, I just smiled. I thought of these beautiful women out there whom I've never even met, and said (to my self) they're praying for my husband! It was overwhelming, in a good way.

So I wanted to say thank you and tell this little tid bit for others out there going through a hard time, we're praying and God hears us. And lets keep encouraging and praying for each other, ok?

You could go here , to my sweet sister,and leave an encouraging word or a prayer. Or sometimes I go here and just pray.

If you came to my house today..................Thanks Coffee gal!

If you came to my house today.........

Outside you'd see the tiny layer of our first snowfall.
Inside the fire would be going and the coffee pot on. (Well not really on, because did you know that leaving a coffee pot on uses tons of electricity!)But there would be coffee and vanilla creamer. Yes only vanilla, we're plain that way.
My dishes would be done. Counters clean too.
My laundry would be done.
Floors swept and maybe even mopped.
Beds made.
Toys picked up.
Desk in order and papers filed neatly away.

But before you hate me I want you to know me too.

I'm just a cleaning type of girl. If I came to your house I may just start sweeping for you or fold the laundry on the couch. It's just fun to me.

But before you hate me I want you to know me.

Just because my house is always clean and organized doesn't mean I'm not sometimes mostly a mess.

If you came to my house today.......

You might find my husband sitting outside worrying about his day. He is unemployed and worried about his future.
It might be chilly in the basement because the fire doesn't reach there and I'm too worried about the electric bill to use the heaters too much.
Kitchen's clean, but I probably am feeling guilty for not eating a better breakfast.
And as my two younger girls and I sit down to school in the office, we may have some tears from my struggling reader or we may choose to just color our turkeys all day.

I hope that if you came today you wouldn't think you were at house that had it all together. It may look neat but we're a mess. And that's okay! I love our mess and the knowledge of the ONE who is bigger than it.
Thanks for coming and wasn't the coffee good? Isn't vanilla the best?

Thank you Grandpa

Growing up, I remember my Grandpa telling me stories about being at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked during WWII.

"I survived." He would say. "But most of my friends didn't."

And as December 7th drew closer he would always be a litttle more quiet, and spend more time alone. He didn't talk alot about what his mind must have been replaying, but he would make sure we all knew what that day meant.

I, in all my childhood wisdom, thought he was a little dramatic about the whole thing.
I don't anymore. I wish I would have told him thank you more often for what he did. What he survived.
He died 17 years ago. On December 17th.


On the day my last daughter was born, as I was laying in the hospital bed, holding and smiling at her. I realized what the date was.

December 7th.

I guess God helped me to be able to say thank you to my Grandpa in a way only He could.

Thank you.

10 words I do not like

I love words. I love reading them, saying them, hearing them, putting my own twist on them.......
Although, I don't really like to talk to alot and have always thought that less is more when it comes to communication.

This irritates my husband.

There are also words I just do not like. I do not like to say them, hear them, and I definitely put my own twist on them if I need to say them.

I'm not even sure if I can do this list, that's how much I don't like them. And this is a PG list mind you. I don't even have a rated R vocabulary.

So, if you avoid some words like I do, then I encourage you to stop reading now.

Why am I even doing this?

Here goes..........


Who am I kinding? I can't do it.


Let's do a few of my favorite words instead.

1. Hence
2. albeit
3. ballet
4. furthermore
5. pinkish
6. lofty
7. exhaustified
8. unique
9. chica
10. totally

Ok I know I'll think of ones I love better as soon as I post this, but these are a few off the top of my head.
And no, I'm not British or Spanish, but have been known to talk that way around the house. Teenage daughters think this is really entertaining.

Not.

Do you have favorite words? Please don't leave words you don't like because they may be the same ones I can't stand. (Or is this just something weird about me?) Or do you have any words you put your own twist on, like my #7?

She danced the night away......and went bowling?

My daughters are amazing.
My daughters are alot like me. ha ha.

They also, are nothing like me.

We spent a good 2 hours getting my oldest daughter ready for the dance last Friday. I say we, but it was all me. We started with her hair. I got out my trusty hair rollers from the top shelf of the closet and she about freaked when she saw them.

her: "What the heck are those?"
me: "they look old but they'll give your hair great curls."
her: "OMGness Mom this isn't the 80's!"

After about 3 more freakouts about my ability to do her hair we finally finished and she loved it.

If my husband wasn't convinced someone was going to see a picture on here and want to come attack us, I'd have some great pictures to show.

I know.

Her makeup didn't take as long, but somewhere around eye shadow, I asked what the final plan for the evening was.
She said they were all meeting at 5 and then going bowling.

Bowling?

How had I missed that plan?

This was Homecoming. Pictures, a nice dinner somewhere fancy, and off to the dance........

Apparently I'm from the 80"s.

She was so excited. Fancy dresses and bowling shoes. What could be more fun?

This is something I would have never done. It just doesn't make sense. We I had just spent 2 hours doing her hair!

After I stopped freaking out, I started laughing.
This was so my daughter.
And her pictures she captured from the whole night?
Priceless!
Who knew, fancy dresses and bowling shoes went so well together.