The Girls

I'm not sure what she is, but she's cute no matter what.


Gorgemous Princess Ariel


Love the flippers!

Those curls took 45 minutes.

Isn't Princess Aurora pretty?

Halloween

Well, it's Halloween. We were supposed to go to Neewollah, but I just don't feel good today. I made it through work and that's the extent of my being with people ability today. I told the girls I'd take them around the block, but I don't even have candy to pass out because I was planning on being gone. So we'll come back, turn off all the lights, watch Dora and eat popcorn until we take Eric his dinner. Then it's off to bed. Tomorrow's cleaning day. Yea. I'll post pictures once I feel like it.

Side note: We've been getting away from ghost and witches and stuff like that lately. So what does Ziggy come home from school with this week? A dress-up witch's hat, a bat, a picture with a skull on it (I think it's a sponge print) and ghost-y stuff. Oh well, it could be worse, she could stay home all day and have to deal with me.

Here's a pic of them all together. Our Little Princesses.

Thankful 2

I'm a dork. On Thankful, I forgot to write about Eric. I am definitely thankful for him, I just spaced. So I'm very thankful for my husband. Not only is he a great dad, he loves me enough to put up with me for the last eight years! I don't write about him a lot mainly because he's not home. But I know that he's not home because he's trying to make the best life he can for all of us. It's hard to deal with sometimes (mostly because I'm exhausted and miss him but don't tell him the right way) but it's just a season, and it too shall pass. God shows us that real love is a choice and not a feeling, and it's a choice I made eight years ago. Now I just pray for the strength to go on till he gets to a point where he can slow down and rest.

Is That Supposed To Be White?

I don't know who did the buying for these houses, but they had no clue what they were doing. I'm thinking it was a middle aged man who never had any kids or at least didn't raise them because he was never home. Who on earth makes textured white bath tubs and cabinets? If I had back all the time I've spent trying to scrub them clean (and usually not succeeding) I probably could have gotten my associates degree. I don't know what I would have gotten it in, but I would be half way finished with something! Whatever it is it's not getting the stains out of these tubs.

Thankful

As I sit here at my computer that just decided to work again (I think someone from AT&T read my last blog, realized I hadn't had it fixed and started messing with it again), and think about the day to come, it's very easy to start focusing on the irritations. When I think about yesterdays it's even easier to think about those frustrations (mascara, a 20-month-old and a sister who opens doors for her do NOT mix!!!). But I realized my thinking is totally off.

At bible study one of the gals, Mayra who unfortunately is leaving for Okinawa soon, loved a quote recently. It was "Praise Him through the lice." It's about two Christ-following women in a concentration camp who are positively infested with lice, so bad that they were on their arm hair. One can't stand it anymore, and the other says to just hold on and praise God. So they start talking to the other women in their house and start spreading the Word. They start having mini bible studies. All because of the lice. The guards wouldn't come in because they didn't want to be infested. And while nothing in our life is that bad, minor irritations and your response can really bring you farther from God.

So I'm thankful. Thankful that Eric and I both have jobs. We don't really see the turn to the economy like other people do. Eric won't get fired. We see prices going up and quality going down, not that that hasn't been happening for a while. But we know that his job is secure. I started working this month. I'm very thankful for that. First, I get to watch Laelia, who is fantastic! I can tithe! This also gives us a chance to do some of the big stuff sooner. My mom-mobile needs new shoes. Us girls and our shoes. Eric's car needs brakes (I love him enough to want his car to stop, so I guess we'll replace those). We can start paying stuff off. A lot of people can't say that right now.

I have three gorgeous, healthy girls who still like me, though I won't take any bets when they realize they can't have phones or wear makeup. I irritate them and they irritate me. It's easy to just go through the motions without stopping and focusing on them, but God really blessed me with these three girls. I can't find the verse I want, but will look for it some more. Hah, found it. It was on the wall like 10 feet from me. Go figure. Psalm 127:3 Children are a gift from the Lord.

And I have a God who loves me no matter what I do. A God who forgives everything and still uses me. Don't get me wrong. God doesn't just love you and say "Okay, go about your life without Me, doing what you want. I love you and will make everything perfect for you, even when you don't love Me or acknowledge Me or believe in Me." To experience God's grace you have to tell him that you are not perfect. That you can't come to Him because of how dirty and putrid your best attempts at life are compared to Him. You need the payment that Jesus made (His death on the cross) for your sins. And that you need Him, you can't live life on your own. And then once you do that, you have to give your life to Him, complete and utter control of it. As someone that has struggled with that for over 20 years (that sounds funny, since I'm only 24), that is the hardest part of a relationship with God. Not being able to do it my way. Having to put some effort into it. Hence why most marriages fail. So I am thankful that God made a way to be a part of His family (Jesus' love sacrifice) and that He does forgive me, and that He helps me lean on Him every day. And when I don't He sends a gale, or sometimes a tempest to encourage me to lean.

*Elementary Motherhood*

Following are answers given by elementary school-age children to the given questions:

Why did God make mothers?
1. She's the only one who knows where the Scotch Tape is.
2. Think about it. It was the best way to get more people.
3. Mostly to clean the house.
4. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How did God make mothers?
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
2. Magic, plus super powers, and a lot of stirring.
3. God made my mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?
1. We are related.
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's moms like me.

What ingredients are mothers made of?
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.
2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string. I think.

What kind of little girl was your mom?
1. My mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.
2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.

How did your mom meet your dad?
1. Mom was working in a store and dad was shoplifting.

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?
1. His last name.
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer? Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

Why did your mom marry your dad?
1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my mom eats a lot.
2. She got too old to do anything else with him.
3. My grandma says that mom didn't have her thinking cap on.

What makes a real woman?
1. It means you have to be really bossy without looking bossy.

Who's the boss at your house?
1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because Dad is such a goofball.
2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.
3. I guess Mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than Dad.

What's the difference between moms and dads?
1. Moms work at work and work at home, and dads just work at work.
2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them. 3
. Dads are taller and stronger, but moms have all the real power because that's who you have to ask if you want to sleep over at your friend's.

What does your mom do in her spare time?
1. Mothers don't have spare time.
2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

What's the difference between moms and grandmas?
1. About 30 years.
2. You can always count on grandmothers for candy. Sometimes moms don't even have bread on them.

Describe the world's greatest mom?
1. She would be able to make broccoli taste like ice cream.
2. The greatest mom in the world wouldn't make me kiss my fat aunts.
3. She'd always be smiling and keep her opinions to herself.

Is anything about your mom perfect?
1. Her teeth are perfect, but she bought them from the dentist.
2. Her casserole recipes. But we hate them.
3. Just her children.

What would it take to make your mom perfect?
1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.
2. Diet. You know, her hair. I'd dye it, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?
1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.
2. I'd make my mom smarter -- then she would know my sister did it and not me.

From You Make Me Laugh at Crosswalk.com

It's All A Scam

A few weeks ago I was sick but still had to clean up for the AT&T lady. Out internet had been going out for hours, close to days, at a time and we had a red light on our modem. So she said we needed a $35 part and it would be $60 to install it. So I said we would wait (after talking to Eric) and if it still did it we'd call back. So we waited a week, since if you call back within 10 days it looks bad on the worker, and what happens? It stops doing it. I've only had it out once, for less than a two minutes. So I'm convinced that there's a button at AT&T that they try to use just to get money out of you. We also considered cancelling our land line and upping our cell minutes, but found out that with the dual service discount (phone and internet) we were only paying $7 for phone. That doesn't buy a whole lot of cell minutes, so I don't have to change all of our paperwork and take our house number off of everything. One good thing, at least.

What On Earth!

The girls and I were talking about fingernails, so I looked for some online. The Yahoo! search was clean, but I was looking for the really grody disgusting nails that touch the floor. So I went to google. One of the first images that pops up is not what I really wanted to see. Then I tried a kid-oriented search. Unfortunately same kind of thing. Apparently the SafeSearch got turned off, though I don't know how; thankfully I found it. I can't believe parents just let their kids use the internet without monitoring them, even at ClaireBeth's age. Unfortunately Auntie Julie's "ERASE, ERASE, ERASE!!!" usually doesn't work, no matter how hard you try or how much you want it to.

I Just Had A BAD Weekend

It was so bad that I cried three times. Twice on the phone to the people and once at church. Laelia was fussy Thursday from missing her morning nap. I learned to rearrange everything instead of doing that again. But that night her dad called and asked if anything happened during the day because she was inconsolable. So the girls and I prayed for her and asked for prayer for them at biblestudy. Mom was out of town, so Dad thought it was mostly that. Then he calls Friday morning and says that Laelia is still crying and hates to be moved because her hip or knee is hurting a lot. So to the doctor they go. Then to x-rays, with a possible trip to the orthopedic specialist if necessary. To me, that's huge, though this family knows them all by first name, kids and belt size. At this point I'm horrified and sick to the thought that I might have accidentally hurt her, or that they would think that I had done something, that they didn't want me to watch her and if I did do something, how expensive are x-rays and specialists? Dad called back Friday evening and said that nothing was broken or dislocated. Cue crying jag number one. I don't hear anything else all weekend. Sunday I go in to church and am leading the kindergartners. Before I get any kids I start crying again, just from being so worried. I called Mom earlier today but got no answer and no one called me back, so I got up the nerve to call again. Mom says everything's fine, Laelia just has crying pain spells sometimes and she's coming back tomorrow like planned. Cue crying jag three. Today they had already planned to keep Laelia home before any of this started. But I'll probably at least look into getting licensed so that I can get insured, and I could take on more kids (before and after school only) if I needed to.

Eric came home Sunday night and is home until tomorrow afternoon, which is nice for me, but he's been having to deal with me being a basket case. But mainly I'm most relieved that she's okay. Still in a bit of pain, but okay.

Fundraising Is Not Fun!

Someone sent out invites to participate in her children's fundraising. That I have no problem with. I guess it's fundraising in general. So I told her that we don't do it. Which I lied about. I forgot we did do one where someone could do a donation instead of buying 2 ounces of chocolate for $8.00. This one you could also use at some normal stores online. I don't know how much of a percentage the school got from the online shopping part. But in general we try to avoid them. She brought up the very valid argument that the money helps in the art and P.E. and other departments and for field trips. And I'm sure part of it does. I just don't think we need to have the kids sell 12 square feet of wrapping paper. Don't get me wrong, ClaireBeth's school sent the packet home the second or third week of school. I looked through it in case there was anything great and fantastic, almost wanting to find something to buy. But alas, nothing new, fantastic or wonderful. And a donation for $10 is even better than buying something and less than half actually going to the schools. I'm also rather selfish. I know we won't be here in two years, so I'd rather help get something for ClaireBeth's classroom that the teacher can use in the years to come than do a fundraiser for something she'll never see.

Our school does do a jog-a-thon and a cake walk to also help with some of the art and P.E. and field trip stuff. We have sucker and flower sales around the appropriate holidays and other odds and ends here and there (have you ever tried to carry three things of cotton candy and push a double stroller?). I think those are good ideas and often will actually do some of the sales or supporting or physical part as well as financial. They get the parents more involved than taking a paper to work with stuff that people only buy to help out. But this makes more clutter in our houses. I still have lotions that don't smell good from when Eric was at Camp Pendleton. Most of the families we know all go to the same school and so we're all trying to get each other to buy stuff out of the same magazine or our families don't need the stuff. So if you'd like to donate to ClaireBeth's school or are just waiting on the edge of your seat for the next fundraiser to come along, let me know (don't worry, I'm kidding:)). Otherwise I just wish they'd stop wasting all the paper for the catalogues. And if you disagree, please, feel free to leave a comment as well.

Not Another One

Vee is 20 months old today. I had her at 1829, so about an hour ago. I look at her and could NOT imagine having another baby today. I did start watching Laelia yesterday, though, so I did do myself in timing-wise. I've taken her to the library and store and have already gotten the "Are they both yours?" thing. It's even worse when Ziggy's with us. But no, no more babies, please. I was excited to make it to today with no more babies. We've taken measures to make sure it doesn't happen, but I've learned to not always trust doctors, military or civilian.

I about scared myself silly.

I started watching Laelia today. It went really well. We took the big girls to school. We played. We went to the store. We ate. We slept. We picked the big girls up. Then her mama came and we did her stretches. She only fussed once when she was hungry. She's a mellow baby who's a lot of fun to be around. I was just at kind of a loss as to what to do with her. She doesn't move a lot. Her arms can move up and down somewhat and she can kind of grab things. But her elbows don't bend. It will take some getting used to. Her mama and I were talking about discipline. While we were talking I realized how much hope she still has that Laelia will be mobile. I wondered when I stopped thinking like that. After Laelia was born we were all told so that we could pray for her. But eventually requests get pushed to the end of the list or dropped or you're just praying them out of habit. Or at least I do. But tomorrow God could say "Okay my precious child. Get up and walk." I guess I figured if she did walk it would be a while before then and it wouldn't be through an instantaneous miraculous healing. It would be a miracle, but take a lot of work too. Oh me of little faith. God is far beyond our understanding. And it may be His plan for her to be like this. No matter what, He does have a plan.

So as to scaring myself. I am getting paid to watch Laelia. I actually feel a bit crummy about it, especially since I knew them before I started watching her. But last night I started thinking about stuff that goes along with regular pay. Like taxes (I know, very scary!). And what if we no longer qualify for preschool? WIC I can live without, though it does save us a good bit of money. I still don't know if we'll make too much. But preschool is entirely different! I have to have preschool!!! Really I could get along without it, I'd just rather not. So I called and we're okay, we still qualify. I still don't know what's up with taxes, but we'll figure that out. I prayed that God would tell me what to do about tithing (Eric refuses to even consider thinking about the thought of it) and I got Laelia (I hate calling it a job when really it's a sweet little girl). I just never thought about all the other stuff. I just wanted to show God how much I appreciate all that He's given us and acknowledge that He's the one taking care of us, but "Then give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (Matt 22:21) and "Thou shall not steal." (Exodus 20:15) and "These six things does the LORD hate: yes, seven are an abomination to him: . . . a lying tongue, . . . " (Prov 6:16&17) kept popping into my head, even though I wasn't planning on lying or stealing. Sometimes it's hard doing the right thing, especially if it hadn't occurred to you until it was too late. Unfortunately I was rambling about this to Laelia's mama, so now she probably thinks I'm an insane tax evader/preschool cheater!

Laelia Sky

I get Laelia on Thursday! So what is Laelia? Technically it's a genus of orchid (see above). But the Laelia I'll have is a one-year-old (as of Oct 3rd-Happy Birthday!) from church. I get to watch her during the week for around 5 hrs a day. Now some of you might be shocked considering how I usually feel about kids (sometimes including my own). But God gave her one of the best dispositions I've ever seen in anyone. She is extremely sweet and smiley. But God made her different in other ways too.

Laelia was born without some major muscles in her arms and legs. I'm not sure about her hands and feet. She was also born with limb joints that don't have a normal range of motion due to a lot of tissue around them. So I'll help with her stretches. I know my explanation sounds uninformed, and it is. I really just started looking the conditions up very recently and I don't know how to put it so that people that aren't knowledgeable about the conditions can understand. I can throw out words like contractures and the alphabet soup that comes with any condition or disease or military branch, but if you're like me you'll have to look them up, and that still hasn't been the biggest help because they just use big words to explain the big words.

I have told Eric, but no one else except for a friend at church. He knew I went to an interview on Saturday, but never asked what it was about or how it went. I was a little hurt and thought about not telling him and just letting him come home to another girl in the house (as if four weren't enough!). But I was too excited not to tell someone. My friend didn't even know that I went for the interview since I didn't tell anyone that Laelia's parents and I were talking in case God had someone else to watch Laelia.

So I'm off. I haven't decided if I'm off to bed or off to clean. Maybe I'll flip a coin. Heads-go to bed. Tails-go to bed. If it lands on the edge standing up then I'll clean.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Nope, not a typo. It's another Sarah's birthday today, so Happy Birthday! And I just don't have a picture of her.

Is anyone out there?

I'm going nuts. I'm waiting to hear about an opportunity, namely a meeting this weekend. If I'm given this opportunity I need to buy supplies. So I've been looking for supplies, but no one's written me back about that either. I would like to talk to someone else about something inconsequential, but it's still there. I don't know certain things and I need to prep for them. I'm going nuts waiting to hear about stuff or getting a chance to talk to people. Obviously I hate waiting. It's like I ceased to exist in anyone's email or phone list. Patience is not one of the fruits I've been patient with God working on. I think I'm starting to see a trend here. Okay, so what do you do when you're at the end of your abilities? Go to the one being who can do anything, even when He's trying to use me to do it. Even though I should have gone to Him first since you really can't get much done in life apart from Him. Existence is possible, but entirely different.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

So it was my cousin's birthday a few days ago. I was looking for this excellent picture of her and JoJo from Mother's Day and can't find it. That's why this is posted late. Sorry Sarah! Or is it Sara:)'?

Happy Birthday Mia!

So I sent her an email with Happy Birthday in Spanish (I prefer Russian but don't remember as much of it since I didn't study it as long and with Spanish you can at least read the letters), then in German since that's what Mia knows. Apparently she really liked it. To see how it actually sounded I went to YouTube. Did you know Kermit the Frog knows German. He does. I was surprised! I tried to see what other languages Kermit speaks, but you can find some very disturbing and scary images on YouTube so I decided it wasn't worth it.