Mama On The Move

Few things are as terrifying to a parent as not knowing where your child is. When you can't find them and you are searching and they are still nowhere around, it's just a heart stopping time until you find them. Tonight, Emily wanted to practice riding her bike. She went outside and rode in circles for an hour. I took the dogs out for a walk and talked to her for a little bit while I was out there, then I came back in. Kerry and Ben arrived home about 30 minutes later. I asked them if they had seen Emily and they said no, so I went out to check on her. She knows she is not supposed to leave the immediate area of our back driveway without checking with us first so I wasn't worried. I figured she was just behind a tree or somewhere where I couldn't immediately see her. I walked down the street, calling her name every so often, and stopped by her best friend's house to see if she was there - although I was going to be aggravated if she was because she didn't let me...

I have a whopping case of laryngitis. We went out with a group of friends last night and I couldn't get out anything higher than a whisper all night. I'm a little better this morning, at least I'm able to get out some sounds although I still sound pretty raspy. It's the darn ragweed and the crackheads that are doing this to me. It's ragweed season here, and I am allergic to all southern grasses. The crackheads play a factor because they apparently use my allergy medicine to make meth labs and so the one thing that keeps me from being one giant ball of phlegm every spring is largely unavailable to me. The Army does not carry it any more. My doctor says she might be able to write me a prescription to have filled off post but she wants to try some other things first. So I'm currently hosting 3 bottles of pills, 2 bottles of eye drops, and one bottle of Flonase. The three different pills all have to be taken at different times in different amounts, so I learned quic...

I just got back from the homeschool convention and boy am I pumped! A homeschool convention is an overwhelming mix of things you love, things you hate, things you didn't know existed but now realize you need, things you wish you could afford, etc. etc. etc. I could have bought so much stuff if it weren't for money! I ordered my math and language arts from Abeka, except for Ben's math because I'm switching him to Teaching Textbooks for high school. I checked out all the Apologia science programs because I'm planning to use those for high school also. I bought a few history books for supplements. I purchased "The Answers Book" from Answers in Genesis because it goes along with the video series we have on Creation vs. Evolution. I shuddered as I walked by the "Drivers Ed In A Box" booth because I realized I may actually be purchasing that in another year. I bought an Airzooka: Which, frankly, has been a very popular purchase at home. I ran into almo...

I know I've mentioned before how terrifying the world at large is to my 153 pound mastiff. But today just took the cake. The maintenance man came to fix a light in my kitchen. Both dogs were standing at the back door watching him through the screen as he approached. My smaller, more aggressive dog barked several times, as a warning to the man and to us. My bigger dog, barked once, "WOOF!" then turned and fled into the recesses of the house. The maintenance man brought in a ladder, worked on the light in the ceiling, then realized he needed to go get somthing else from the shop. He left the ladder, and my scairdy dog has stood in the door and whined pitifully at it like he's asking it nicely to please, just leave. This is Rigger the lap dog.

If you've never heard of this contest, you've been missing a really good thing. This is a contest for people to write the worst opening sentence they can think of for a novel. I didn't think this year's entries were as good as last years, but there are still some really funny ones. Here are a few of my favorites: 2007 Winner: Gerald began - but was interrupted by a piercing whistle which cost him ten percent of his hearing permanently , as it did in a ten-mile radius of the eruption, not that it mattered much because for them " permanently " meant the next ten minutes or so until buried by searing lava or suffocated by choking ash - to pee. Jim Gleason, Madison, WI "I know what you're thinking, punk," hissed Wordy Harry to his new editor, "you're thinking, 'Did he use six superfluous adjectives or only five?' - and to tell the truth, I forgot myself in all this excitement; but being as this is English, the most powerful language...

My husband took our girls to a Father-Daughter Dance last night! It was so much fun helping them get ready! The girls had picked out their dresses a week before, and they did not want their father to see them until they were all decked out. Kerry wore his dress blues for the occasion. It was so sweet to see my girls getting all fancy. Emily had her first pair of shoes with a heel on them (it was only about 1/4 inch of a heel but she was thrilled). After they left, I got a frantic phone call from Kerry. He had bought wrist corsages to give to the girls, and we had both completely forgotten about them! They were still sitting in our fridge! I hopped in the car and drove to the dance with the corsages. I'm glad I did because I got to see dozens of dressed up girls and their decked out daddies heading into the building. It was like watching a parade of butterflies go across the parking lot. Adorable! The girls said they had a wonderful time. They got to dance with their father and luck...

At our church the Protestants and Catholics share the building. There is a Protestant service at 8:00, then a Catholic service at 9:30, then another Protestant service at 11:00. The halls get pretty jam packed in between services with all the people coming in and going out. Also in between services, everyone heads for the "doughnut room". This is a large room just off the kitchen where coffee and doughnuts are free to all. The Catholic service pays for half the doughnuts and the Protestant service pays for the other half. The problem is that the Catholics just have better doughnuts. The Protestants have glazed only. Period. The Catholics have chocolate, blueberry, sprinkles, cream filled, as well as the dull old glazed ones. All the kids of course are attracted to the fancy doughnuts. I, frankly, had never noticed the sign in front of the doughnuts stating which ones are for the Catholic service goers, and which ones are for the Protestant service goers. That is until my son ...

I had to take my dogs to the vet for a "personality test" this morning. Who would have thought there was such a thing? We are trying to get them into a program called "Human Animal Bond" where we can take them on visits to nursing homes. The vet had to test them to see how they react to new situations and new people. It's funny when you take your dogs to a veterinary clinic. Clearly a million dogs have been through (and peed all over) this place. My dogs plastered their noses to the floor the second we walked in, and never lifted their heads and never stopped frantically pacing around sniffing. It was like having two bloodhounds on the trail of a raccoon in there. They were positively electrified by all the smells of this place. Rigger passed the personality test with flying colors. He tipped the scales at 152 pounds. He's just a lovable old oaf, completely unaware of his hugeness as he is terrified by strollers, flags, people in coats, and plastic ...

My whole family is taking Tae Kwon Do this year. We decided it would be good exercise, good family time, and our kids would learn to defend themselves. My husband and son especially just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. Frankly, I would have quit after the first month and been just as happy to go on about my life blissfully ignorant of any more martial arts moves. I'm a wimp. I admit it. I thought this would be "fun" and quite frankly it's turned out to be "hard" and "work". (This is why I never stick with any exercise program for long either, in case you are wondering.) I thought this would be sort of like dancing. We would learn some moves which would be nicely choreographed and throw some punches into thin air like Tae Bo class. Somehow the whole idea of "pain" just didn't really enter my brain (and I've seen the outtakes of Jackie Chan's movies - you'd think I would have made the connection). I first decided I wasn't having fu...

Today is a difficult day for my mother. If my father were alive, today would be their 50th anniversary. We probably would have had a big celebration, especially since it fell on a weekend. We had talked about all of us taking a vacation together, or having a BBQ with friends and family. My mother made me swear years ago that we would not have a big formal party. She said it just wasn't "them" and a BBQ with a hay ride would be more their style. Instead, my mother is spending the day at home, my sister and my aunt are with her. We went in together and got her a gift certificate for a facial at a really upscale place. We weren't sure if she would want to go out and do anything today. My father had said a number of times that he really hoped he would make it to their 50th. I think knowing that he was looking forward to it makes it even harder. My father died last year of congestive heart failure. He started smoking when he was fourteen. He quit once for two ye...

Crying is a form of stress release for most women. When we get tense or upset, a good cry can help relieve us enormously and clear our minds to then deal with what ever made us tense or upset in the first place. Me? I'm a laugher . When I get tense, I start giggling like mad. If the situation becomes really unbearable, I can wind up laughing so hard I can't even breathe. Tears stream down my face, my lips draw back from my teeth in a hideous grin, and I can't stop no matter what if I let it get hold of me. Once in junior high, my best friend fell off a trampoline and smacked her chin on the metal frame. She darn near broke her jaw, couldn't even close her mouth for a few minutes, and I was laughing like a hyena, only occasionally being able to gasp, "I'm sorry! HAHAHAHA ! It's not funny! HAHAHAHA !" Another time, our Chihuahua almost choked to death on a piece of hot dog (Did you know that a dogs gums actually turn blue when they choke? They really do...

My kids love to cook. My 10 year old daughter will read a cookbook like it's a novel. My 13 year old son is grandly insulted when his scout troop cooks hot dogs for a meal instead of making a goulash from scratch and a desert from scratch (no canned goods allowed ). My seven year old daughter begs to help in the kitchen and recently found a shish-ka-bob recipe that turned out to be quite a hit with the whole family. Today my son was in charge of dinner. We needed a crock pot meal because this is one of those days where we will be out of the house until 6:00 so we need a meal that is ready when we walk in the door so we aren't tempted to eat out instead. :-) Ben had found a recipe he wanted to try and I had purchased all the ingredients, but when the time came to put it all together, he couldn't find the recipe. Having cooked dozens of similar dishes before, he decided to just "wing it" and went through the cupboard sniffing all the spices to decide what would tast...

I went to a five hour seminar on women's self-defense today. Whew! Parts of it were very intense. There was a lot of good advice and information too. We even had a practice dummy that we hit, kicked, punched, gouged, etc. All while screaming at the top of our lungs. It's a little embarrassing to scream bloody murder in front of people you don't know. But we all did it. The instructors made a good point that many people freeze up and actually can't scream when they are attacked, so it's best to practice it. We watched a number of videos of people being attacked and talked about what they should have done. We watched some footage of Ted Bundy and talked about how he lured his victims in. We watched interviews with some of the survivors of the Luby's massacre. Watching things like that can be very exhausting emotionally. The hardest thing was the discussion about a serial racist who was on the prowl here from 1991-1993. He violently attacked nine women ...

Last week when I picked my 13 year old son up from youth group, the leaders were handing out notices to the parents announcing at the next youth group meeting they would be discussing "purity" (i.e. SEX) with the teens. My husband and I discussed whether or not we wanted to send our son to the next meeting. There are pros and cons to be considered, after all. We have discussed this subject at home with the kids already - homeschooling provides a million opportunities a day to talk about various subjects with your kids. My husband and son have also have had some of "those" talks during car trips, but frankly, I wasn't there, and who knows if the man I married gave the correct information to our firstborn? I told him what to say, but how do I know he followed my directions? How do I know he gave him wise advice like, "Wait until you are married" or if he really told him, "Use latex, it's less likely to break and ruin your whole life." I w...