Bragging Rights

What the kids looked like a year ago.

Ain't they little cutie-pies?

101 Things

In honor of my 101st post, I would like to share 101 things with you:
1. I had my first pedicure a month ago.
2. I have been certified as a life guard 3 different times.
3. I love to read old-timey mysteries, like Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie.
4. My favorite color is pink.
5. My other favorite color is yellow.
6. My favorite number is 23.
7. I have the perfect birthday.
8. My birthday is almost exactly 6 months from Christmas.
9. That means every 6 months, I get presents!!
10. My favorite Christmas present was silver hoop earrings.
11. When I was little, I wanted to be a secretary when I grew up.
12. I have always wanted to take a photography class.
13. I make all of my children's birthday cakes from scratch.
14. I love a full-dressed hot dog (mustard, onions, chili, slaw).
15. I would much rather have a hamburger from the grill than a steak.
16. I especially love the spicy chicken sandwich from Burger King.
17. But McDonald's has the Best fries.
18. I enjoy country music.
19. I also like bluegrass.
20. My middle name is a family name.
21. I still have my Strawberry Shortcake dolls.
22. My favorite holiday is the 4th of July.
23. I'm a little claustrophobic.
24. I like to hike up mountains.
25. I do not like climbing rocks.
26. I love getting stuff for free by using my coupons.
27. I collect tea cups.
28. I don't have any more places to put my tea cups.
29. I prefer cinnamon air freshener over vanilla.
30. I have always wanted to have a pet dog.
31. We don't have any pets because Eli is allergic.
32. I used to take horseback riding lessons when I was little.
33. I don't think I've ever met anybody famous. (If you know I have, please leave a comment and remind me.)
34. My favorite movies to watch are fantasy (like LOTR, etc.) and classics (like To Kill A Mockingbird, etc.).
35. My favorite donut is custard-filled chocolate glazed.
36. I like white chocolate better than dark chocolate.
34. I love a tomato sandwich.
35. My favorite cereal is Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
36. If I could live anywhere in the world, I would live in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
37. I was a Dallas Cowboy fan before I met my husband.
38. My first car was a Toyota Corolla.
39. I totalled my first car.
40. I am the oldest of 4 children.
41. I always wanted an older brother.
42. I have 1 niece and 1 nephew.
43. I always wanted red hair like Anne of Green Gables.
44. I love Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.
45. I also love Little House on the Prairie.
46. It takes me a good hour to get hungry when I wake up in the morning.
47. I love porch swings.
48. Yellow roses are my favorite.
49. My eyes catch misspellings and typographical errors (if there's any in this post, it's because I didn't go back and read it).
50. I have a freckle in my eye.
51. I do not like bugs.
52. I used to be a certified flatwater canoe instructor.
53. I love to wear fun jewelry.
54. My husband is very romantic.
55. I like to play Uno.
56. I enjoy shopping.
57. I have 17 rolls of film that need to be developed.
58. I love taking pictures.
59. Aren't you bored yet?
60. Traveling is fun!
61. My wedding dress still fits.
62. I did 4 years of college in 3 3/4 years.
63. Quilting is a fun hobby.
64. Contacts are way more comfortabler than glasses.
65. I'm allergic to grass, weeds and trees.
66. Lasagna is my favorite meal.
67. I like either pineapple and bacon or mushrooms and extra cheese for my pizza toppings.
68. Quilting is also an expensive hobby.
69. My beverage of choice is lemonade or Coke.
70. I like mall-shopping with Chris.
71. I always wear my seatbelt.
72. I've never been to Disney World.
73. I know how to crochet.
74. I don't know how to knit.
75. I have touched the Liberty Bell.
76. I love Sharpie markers.
77. I have been to the top of the Washington Monument and the Sears Tower.
78. They both sway in the breeze.
79. I've never had the stomach flu (knock on wood).
80. Obviously, you don't have anything better to do...
81. Dill pickles are better than sweet.
82. We went to an Atlanta Braves game on our honeymoon.
83. One of my neighbors has 30 cats.
84. I used to like cats.
85. Forsythia and dogwoods are my favorite spring flowers.
86. I always forget to put lipstick on.
87. Under my bed is clean.
88. I know CPR.
89. Strawberries do not grow in trees.
90. When I was a teenager, I babysat and mowed lawns to make money.
91. Mowing lawns is hard work.
92. I have tasted sushi and did not like it.
93. Octopus tastes like fishy rubberbands.
94. Mahi mahi is dolphin meat.
95. I put honey on my grapefruit.
96. Ping pong is really fun to play.
97. I cut all my kids' and Chris' hair.
98. Remember jelly shoes?
99. I like to do jigsaw puzzles.
100. I like to drink hot tea in the evening, except in the summertime.
101. It is harder than I thought to think of 101 things.

Watching TV is my Civic Duty

Those who have ever spent the weekend at my house know that I have a ritual. Every Saturday night (unless there is a race on or I'm out on the town) at 9:00 sharp, I turn the TV on and diligently watch America's Most Wanted. I consider this to be my civic duty. Because if I ever pass a creep on the street, I want to know it and be able to turn him in. To date, there have been 998 bad guys caught because of the tips from people watching America's Most Wanted. This past Saturday night, the theme was "50 fugitives from 50 states". That means they picked one bad guy from each state and featured him/her. You better believe I know what my state's creep looks like...and I'm looking. So if you want to know who your fugitive is, just click on amw.com, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click on the "50 fugitives from 50 states" button. And while you're there, have fun exploring the whole site. It's really fascinating!

Green Thumb?

When I was growing up, we always had a garden. From my earliest memories in Texas of picking cute little squash, to dashing out in the dead of winter to pick a handful of kale for supper in Ohio, to the monstrously huge garden that we borrowed a lady's back yard for in North Carolina, to the garden where we lost legos in at the house I still live in in my dreams at night... we always had a garden. My dad still has a garden every year - with really cool stuff growing in it, like asparagus and strawberries, hollyhocks and brussel sprouts. He can even grow a mean eggplant for my mom (she's the only one who eats that - yuck!). (He likes to tell the story about one year when he was planting the eggplant seeds, he planted each seed upside down and said "Don't grow" very quietly to each one.)
The last time I had a garden was 5 years ago, when I would go out to weed around the plants and Jacob would sit on each tomato plant. I really don't have a very green thumb. But I've been thinking about trying a garden again. I'm much encouraged by the tomato plant Jacob planted in a styrofoam cup a year ago in kindergarten which is still very much alive on my kitchen windowsill. So I asked and my dad is coming next week to help me get a garden started. The lack of full sun in the yard, drought, many neighborhood cats, red clay, and a bazillion squirrels are only minor setbacks. Okay, so the agricultural extension man said the squirrels will eat my tomatoes. But he also said that they probably would leave the green beans and squash alone.
So look out, kiddos. You are about to become master weeders and veggie pickers...

Virii (Viruseses)

Disclaimer: This post is not for the weak of stomach.

I have not abandoned blog; we have just had all manner of viruses at our house. Starting with Seth, it was the all night long, exhausting, rubbing baby's back and whispering "it's okay" while he wails and heaves in the toilet. That's after puking all over the crib and all the carpet on the way to the toilet. And all over my hair.
Several days later, the computer gets hit with a mean virus that it is still recovering from.
A week later, Jacob and Savannah wake up in the middle of the night sick to their stomachs. There's nothing like two kids throwing up in the middle of the night at the exact same time. Poor little Savannah thought she might have to go to the hospital. When I explained that she didn't need the hospital, she just needed to get better, she wished she could be someone else. Because being someone else would mean not being sick.
Two days ago, Eli woke up in the middle of the night with his turn in the sickroom (bathroom). In all of the kids' cases, this has been a puke for 12 hours, recover for 12 hours virus. So today, when Eli told me he needed to throw up, I thought about fainting as visions of endless cycles of stomach virus being passed back and forth for the next few months flashed through my brain. Then Eli giggled. Rascal.
Our house smells like Lysol, and Chris and I have washed our hands after each time we touched a kid or something that a kid touched. The computer virus even made it into Chris' sermon. Afterwards, Jacob commented that when people are born, they have a virus written on their hearts. But then, when people ask Jesus into their hearts, Jesus cleans the virus off and puts New writing there. (How does he come up with this stuff?) But I have to agree with him. That is exactly what happens. And you know, it feels so good to get cleaned up after having nasty virus all over.

Easter Love

I love Easter. I love Easter egg hunts, Easter baskets, and more specifically, the "stuff" that comes inside the eggs and baskets. Now that I'm all grown up, I don't get my own Easter basket anymore. Instead, I have the thrill of packing 4 baskets full of the goodies that I loved as a child for my own children. And no Easter basket is complete without jellybeans and Peeps. Can I just say I love Peeps? I was at Target last night, and was almost offended at the selection of Peeps I saw. I'm a traditionalist as far as Peeps go, and yellow chicks and pink bunnies are the only basket-worthy colors. I'll make an allowance for blue bunnies for my boys, but honestly, who ever heard of red and green chicks?! It makes me wonder if the Peeps factory had an overabundance of sugar left over from Christmas and said, "Aww, who's gonna care if we make red and green chicks for Easter, heck, maybe we'll even start a new fad". Eww, gross! Did you know there's an art to eating Peeps? Some people like to open the package and let them sit a few days before eating; this makes them a little more chewy. I like to eat them first thing when I get home from the store, head first, the whole package in one sitting. To me, they are kinda like hot Krispy Kreme donuts- so good and fluffy that you don't even realize you just ate a whole boxful. (Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I've never eaten that many donuts at one time - I've always had to share with someone else. And it's probably been since 2002 since I've lived close enough to a Krispy Kreme to get a hot one.) And if you want to really have some fun with your Peeps, you can stick one in the microwave for 30 seconds. Just make sure you watch it the whole time; it's a real hoot to see it blow up to a ginormous size, and you also want to make sure it doesn't catch on fire. After it cools down, it's kinda crunchy, almost like wet cotton candy, except it's not wet.
But what I really love about Easter starts on Friday. Good Friday. Except on the original Good Friday, it didn't seem so good. That was the day Jesus was nailed to a cross. The day that started out sunshiny and bright but ended with darkness, earthquakes, and thunderings. The day the huge heavy ceiling-to-floor curtain separating the holy place from the people in the temple was split in half. The day Jesus took all of humanity's sin on his own sinless back. And if you're a human, that includes you. The day God proved His love to you by giving up His life as a sacrifice to pay the price for your imperfectness. And mine. That first Good Friday night, Jesus' body was put in a tomb. A huge stone was rolled in front of the tomb's opening, sealed, and guards were placed there. That's because Jesus had predicted that He would rise from the dead. But guess what happened on Easter, early in the morning? Jesus did come back to life! He won over sin and death! And He offers His victory over sin and death to all of us. This is why I love Jesus. Because He loved me first. With all His heart. "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation" (Romans 10:9 &10).

If I Lived in California, I'd Be Breaking the Law

I don't know if you heard about this, but just recently in California, homeschooling became illegal. Yeah, California! The state where they want to legalize marijuana, but parents better not educate their own kids! Give me a break... I just read a very informative article about this Californian decision. Please take an extra minute to go read it yourself, and if you think this is scary, please sign the petition linked in the article. This is truly sad that the Californian parents have lost a significant parental right; every parent should have the right to choose the type of education for their own children.