As American as Baseball and... Wendy's?

Last night the three of us, Rod & Betty's family, and Gay all went to a baseball game in Jupiter. The stadium had given the school where Gay and I teach a bunch of free tickets for adults and kids. There were enough extras to take for all of us. The team playing was just a minor league team - the Jupiter Hammerheads. We didn't realize it but it was a double-header so there was one game at 5:05 and then a second one thirty minutes after the first one ended between the same two teams. The second one was definitely more exciting as a LOT more people came for the later one (there was almost no one in the stadium for the first game) and the teams played a lot better. It was also cooler and more pleasant for the second one but the little ones were starting to get tired by then. They also had a fireworks display after the games were over but we (just the 3 of us) left because Kay is so terrified of the noise. We did get to SEE a few of them in the sky as we were leaving and she was okay with that. Because we didn't want to pay $8 for a hot dog, chips, and drink (and that's for one person), Kevin and I stopped by Wendy's in Hobe Sound before we left. We weren't really hungry yet so I put the bag in our diaper bag. (The signs at the stadium say you are not supposed to bring food and drinks in but like I said, just a coke is $3.50!) Kevin just carried our drinks in like he knew exactly what he was doing and they didn't say anything - even when we stopped to give them our tickets. So we watched the game while we ate our Wendy's (Rod and Betty had gone by McDonald's right before they got there.) Because there weren't many people at the first game, we pretty much had our choice of seats so we sat on the first rows right behind home plate. It was a great spot! The home team played pretty horribly the first game but during the second game there were some great plays and they won. Baseball isn't my favorite sport but it is definitely fun to be at a game like that with friends and of course I love all sports. Even the little ones seemed to enjoy it. Kaelyn would clap and cheer when she heard everyone clapping and she was pretty fascinated with watching them play ball too although at the beginning she wanted to "go down there and play with the ball". :) She loved the music and rhythm things they would play over the speakers in between plays. Our cost for the evening was the cost of a bottle of water and a hot dog for Kay-Kay. All in all, it was a great time!

Sarah Palin

As much as I was disappointed that John McCain won the Republican nomination for president, I am LOVING this whole thing with him choosing Sarah Palin as a running mate - how 'bout you all? What are your thoughts? I have several thoughts about it but I'm curious what you guys think. Every since we have found out yesterday, Kevin has been checking Focus on the Families political website. He just found last night where Dr. Dobson was saying that he was pleased with the choice and was impressed with McCain's decison. Not that he is God of course but we highly respect his opinion and Focus of the Family certainly does their "homework" on things like that. If I am still feeling inspired after I do my next post, I might share some things about it that are just making me laugh inside.

A good report

I'm sure this is a topic that you all will find boring but I really thought I should blog about it to give God some [overdue] praise. In trying to get Kaelyn tested so that we can work through some of her issues, we were supposed to get her hearing screened. She had her first [general] screening at the end of last school year and it has taken us this long to get through this second step. The first time we tried, she was uncooperative but also they discovered she had too much wax covering one of her eardrums (which made me feel horrible but the audiologist informed me that it really had nothing to do with how often I cleaned her ears - I still had a bit of a complex). So the second office visit to the ear, nose, & throat specialist was to have the wax removed. That took three of us holding her down. She has always battled us with those kinds of things. To clean her ears, I have to kind of lay across her body so she can't move; it's like major trauma every time we clip her nails and she even flips out if she sees us clipping ours (though that one is getting a little better); every single day - morning and night - when we brush her teeth it's a fight - I don't know why but she can hardly stand it. You would think that since she knows it's going to happen she would just "get over it" but I guess it's more complicated than that. So you can imagine when they try sticking things in her ear, she is about beside herself. The third attempt (appointment) was canceled due to Tropical Storm Fay - the audiologist had 2 feet of water in front of her house and couldn't get out. So now we were up to time 4 (not counting the first general screening where the lady tried to do a hearing screening but couldn't get anywhere close to Kaelyn's ears). The last option is mild sedation, which seemed really extreme to me when we didn't really think there was a problem with her hearing. However, we HAD to get this step done because there didn't seem to be any way around it.
The fourth attempt was a morning appt. in hopes she would be more cooperative. I started praying about it and though I thought it might seem silly to pray about it I thought there was NO way it was going to happen unless God just worked a miracle. I guess in my lack of faith I felt like God probably needed to save miracles for more important situations but I didn't know what else to do. When I was getting Kaelyn around this morning she was grumpy and I thought, "Great, that's just what I need - her to be tired and cranky this morning!" She fell asleep in the car on the way to the appt. and I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. I could go on with each detail but I will spare you this time. I'll just say that from the time we pulled into the parking lot to the time we were going back out to the car, only 15 minutes had passed. We went back almost as soon as we got there and Kay just sat on my lap with her head against me as they did the test. She was awake but she whispered most of the time and only flinched a couple of times. I was honestly in shock. As we were walking out, she said, "It was fun ears?" I was just like, "Yeah, yeah it's fun ears!" I was so relieved after everything we had gone through (including getting charged $100 by mistake one of the times they didn't get the screening - we did get the money back after Kevin called them). The point is though, I know it had to be God answering my prayer even though I didn't really even have enough faith to believe I would receive what I asked for. I don't think I have to point out the fact of how often we do this. I think we ALL forget that God DELIGHTS in blessing us, meeting our needs, and even going beyond what we ask for. I think we also forget what a "personal" God He is. It's so much easier to pray for the "big stuff" that we feel like He wants/needs to hear about but I was reminded once again that he cares about my feelings too - if I'm frustrated, hurt, nervous, etc. I wish this would make me learn the lesson once and for all but I am sure the next time a situation comes up like this, I will be tempted to try to fix it myself and then get frustrated when I keep hitting my head against the wall. But for now, I just wanted to share my thankfulness to God for doing something that I thought was not possible.
(This is going to be one of those blogs that will be lucky if it survives my delete button.)

Why Obama is a very down to earth "god"

It is very interesting to me how the democrats work so hard to make Obama sound like "the guy next door" that is everyone's friend and yet they act like he is a god to be revered! Kevin has been watching parts of the DNC live streamed for the past couple of evenings. I started out just "overhearing" it while I was at my computer then I just couldn't tear myself away - seriously. It's definitely NOT because I'm a fan of Obama OR the democrats; I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. Now in all fairness, I've never paid attention to either party's convention before let alone listened or watched so it may just be that they are all like this and I just didn't know it because I've never seen one. I'm sure SOME amount of hype is normal but my goodness...
These are my exaggerations of course but here was my take:
Mr. Joe Low that no one knows would start talking about meeting or working with Obama somewhere (which of course proves that he is just like you and me and not another rich politician) and it would go something like this. "So we were working away and I saw Obama wipe sweat from his face and I realized that Obama is JUST like the rest of us - he sweats just like we do. And that's why he will be the next president - anyone who can sweat like a normal, lowly person should be our president." Then Sue Simpleton would talk about how she had her house, car, and pets taken from her because she couldn't pay for them when George Bush was president but Obama is going to make sure that MILLIONS of people have jobs and all those darn rich people are going to pay for working so hard and being so smart with their money. Obama will see to it that things are more fair and those who have lots of money will be taxed to death so that those who "can't work" will also have money. (I guess his mom never taught him that life is not fair when she taught him all those other important life lessons like patriotism.) And on and on it went - teachers (I'm ashamed to say), a trucker, moms etc.
Then, they have had question and answer sessions where people just like you and me were videoed asking questions that the "average" person is concerned about. A panel of people then supposedly answered the questions "off the cuff" with very rehearsed, researched answers.
And Obama's family - OH MY GOODNESS! to hear everyone talk, you would think that every other presidential candidate has beaten and abused their kids and were horrible parents because they are making such a big deal of what great parents Barrack and Michelle are. I mean no other parents in America teach their kids values and sacrifice for their children like that. And they are so in love (they played a video clip interviewing them talking about how they met) which, I guess given the current relationship status of another former democratic presidential candidate in this race, you do have to give Barrack a little credit for that. And then they played up the thing of Michelle Obama's dad dying when she was young and how he is looking down now so proud of her (she was the keynote speaker Tuesday night). That was mentioned several times. It just went on and on and I couldn't believe how they portrayed him as the perfect person - now mind you, a lot of things they said about him really didn't have much to do with being a good leader. I said to Kevin, "So basically, because he loves his wife and kids, plays basketball, isn't as rich as John McCain, and is so down to earth he will make a great president."
Oh, one more thing from Tuesday night - somebody asked (in a videoed question) what Barack would do to help the economy since Bush has messed it all up so badly (I'm not arguing that the economy stinks right now but I'm not sure that any president can fix it). The lady answering the question said, "Well, the first thing he will do is give everyone a tax rebate incentive to jump start the economy." I couldn't believe it. I thought maybe I was just really ignorant so I said to Kevin, "Isn't that what the government just did when we all got those checks back a few months ago?" Kevin said, "Yeah, and what's more the democrats said that it was a dumb idea." hmmm And the whole Ted Kennedy tribute with Caroline Kennedy speaking was something else too. I was just waiting for Caroline to compare Barrack with her dad which she did. Then when Ted Kennedy spoke he said that "the torch had been passed to a new generation". Again I say, "Hmmm. Where have we heard that before?" Is that plagiarizing if he "requotes" his brother's famous quote? (For those of you who may not know, that's what JFK said at his inauguration) No, I know that he wasn't trying to make it sound like his own quote but it is just another perfect example of how everyone is just going so "gaga" over the whole thing. (Nobody mentioned how JFK's presidency ended when they were comparing the two strangely enough.) Well, I could go on and on on this tirade but I am sure none of you really care to hear any more of my rantings if you made it this far so I'll stop. One more closing thought though - I know this is a very strong and maybe highly offensive statement but when you hear Obama speak in his persuasive manner and hear the crowds chanting his name does it ever make you think of what you have heard about Hitler in his early days? Ironically, I had just started typing this sentence when Obama came on stage to speak (Kevin's watching the last night of the convention). The crowds clapped for 3 or 4 minutes the second he appeared.
I pray that God blesses America but if we conservative/Christian people still have a lesson to learn (which I feel is at least partly why we lost both houses in Congress two years ago), I pray that we will rally around, hit our knees, and become better Christian citizens.
GOD BLESS THE U.S.A. !

HSBC and a few other things

I'm sorry if you have been sorely disappointed by no new posts for several days. (Don't tell me if you didn't even notice - it will make me feel better). :) I taught Monday through today so I have been quite tired and busy but I have the next few days off with and extra day off because of Labor Day Monday.
Tonight I went to the "school service" at church. Whenever school starts back, they always have a service where the music groups sing. I am very out of touch with the college anymore but I have to say that they made me feel proud tonight. All 3 of the groups did really, really well, and the guy's quartet was just plain awesome. I don't know that I have ever heard a group from here as good as they were. Besides enjoying the music though, it was really encouraging in other ways. The summer travel has never been about making money and it often costs the school more than is brought in from offerings and stuff. They said they even debated it when they were talking about having a third group because of the cost of fuel and stuff but amazingly for possibly the first time ever, they broke even with the offerings they received even with all the travel expenses. They got numerous positive e-mails, letters, comments about the groups. Paul Stetler was talking about how encouraged he felt and how he felt like God reminded him that it was all of God's doing. He said that he felt like God knew that the school had had difficulties and knew exactly what they needed as far as money, positive responses about the school, and everything and had just poured out His blessings and let them know that God is still indeed interested in HSBC. I think alumni or not, that is just encouraging to hear!
Well, I have thought about posting some thoughts about the Democratic National Convention - yeah seriously - but I'm not sure if I will or not. If I had the nerve, I would do a "spoof" video clip. We'll see...

Memories

A few weeks ago when I was looking through old pictures for something else, I came across so many pictures that I decided I wanted to post someday. I have been thinking about this blogging "project" for a bit now so here is the first part of it. I'm not sure why but my choice of pics. for this slideshow is mostly my family - specifically my siblings. I have some others that I would like to eventually do - some great pics. from college, earlier pictures of Kay, etc. So you don't waste your time, you will probably not be interested in this slideshow unless you are family or know our family well. When I watch this, I want to laugh and cry (and actually did a little of both as I put it together) - laugh because of the silliness of some of the pictures and because of the good memories, cry because I miss being with my family. It seems like the last few times we have gotten together, we have all had SUCH a great time and the time goes way too fast and leaves me sad wishing it didn't have to end. I understand each of my siblings much more than I used to.
It took me quite awhile to do this because first I had to pull pictures out of various albums and labeled envelopes. I scanned ALL of the pictures that I used to my camera card, then I had to re-orient them as I had scanned them every which way. Because they are not original electronic copies, their quality is not as good. All of the pics. are within the last 10 years except for one so they are not old, old - just kind of old. :) To my siblings: my intention was not to embarrass any of you or pick horrible pictures of anyone - as a matter of fact, you will see that I used plenty of pictures that were less than stunning of me (which is pretty much all of them that have me in them!) Forgive my choice of Broadway music if that is not your thing but I just like the song. If it goes too fast, you can always pause it, and manually "flip" pages. I think maybe I should have left the captions off because it kind of looks neater if you just watch it without having to try to read the captions.
Well, having given that long disclaimer/explanation, here it is:

This -n- that from Friday

I had today off and since the babysitter who watches Kaelyn and Meagan is not babysitting on Fridays for a couple of more weeks, I kept Meagan today. I think that both of the girls had fun. Around 11:00, we got the wagon out and we (I) walked to Circle K in Hobe Sound. I got the girls hot dogs, a little bag of chips and drinks. The office is across the street from Circle K so we stopped in there to say hi to Kevin and Rod and Betty. Kevin "invited" me to have lunch with them so while they ordered subs and finished up their morning, I took the girls back out in the wagon around town for a bit. It was SO hot because the sun had come out and the breeze that we had had earlier had gone away. We walked around for awhile and then I HAD to have a break and we needed to get cooled off so we went back to the office. I took the girls into the conference room and let them color/draw until the others were ready to eat lunch. After lunch, we walked back home - it was a more pleasant walk by then because it had gotten overcast again and I even felt a few sprinkles here and there. Once we got back, I laid the girls down. Meagan went to sleep right away but Kay was being a bit of a stinker so I had to make her go into her room to lay down. They're both asleep now. Here are a few pictures from today just because they looked so cute! :)


Kay decided THIS Minnie Mouse needed to be potty
trained today so she kept putting her on the potty.




I'm not sure what they were playing but they would both
run through the house to the kitchen with Kaelyn leading
and squealing. They would both start giggling and giggling
then they would run back into the bathroom, put Minnie
on the potty, Kay would get her and then they would take
off running and giggling again.


They both headed for the door about the instant I
mentioned going for a ride in the wagon. Meagan
brought me Kay's shoes and her own shoes and they
were ready to go!


Kay-Kay was trying to "show me" that Meagan was
in the wagon with her.


Eating their hot dogs.


"Coloring" pictures.


Meagan sat there very intently coloring while MY
"special" child twisted the marker round and round
while singing "Oh Where is My Hairbrush". Every
other kid I know likes to color but she would rather
"drum" the markers on the table, put the lids on and
off them, or sit there and twist them on the paper. :(


When we got back from our outing, I had them go
inside while I put the wagon away. I showed them
how to stick their heads through the bars because
I wanted to get a picture of them. They had a bit of
trouble with it as you can see but it was still funny! :)


Back home


Ready for a nap.

Our classroom

For lack of something better to post (and I know you are just WAITING for me to post a new post - KIDDING!), I am going to post some pictures I took of our classroom. I had a couple others of our reading corner and our outside door but my hands were a little shaky when I was taking the pictures so a few of them turned out blurry.


We kind of unintentionally did an under the sea theme.
Heather had bought desk name tags and some border that
were that theme and so we just kind of started coming up
with different ideas along that line. Besides the under the
sea bulletin board and name tags, we also have a border of
waves all along the front wall, various sea creatures hanging
from the ceiling, sea creature window clings, and the eight
parts of speech that have different ocean creatures on them.


One of our three bulletin boards.


Our birthday/calendar board.


The front of the classroom (taken from the back
of the room).


The teacher's desk and computer desk.


We have the desks in a U shape. (You will notice by
these pics. how small of a class we have this year. In
the past I've had 20, 27, 22, and 16 students in fourth
grade. This year because of the economy and so many
people struggling financially, our numbers our down in
all the classes and we only have 10. It's a bit hard to
get used to when you're used to twice as many.)


Our "hanging fish"


Two of my favorite posters.

Kaelyn "fraises" God through song during lunch today

Kaelyn was singing when she was eating her lunch today. The song was "Praise Him, Praise Him" in case you can't tell - her tune isn't exactly on. I videoed two different times. I decided to post them both so you can watch whichever one you want. They are exactly the same except on the "flappy arm version" as I call it, she literally waved her arms up and down the whole time and she was louder.

Here come the wind and rains

So there's no school/work for us today due to Tropical storm Fay. It is actually on the west coast of Florida right now across the state from us but it is on a path headed up the middle of the state cutting north of Lake Okeechobee (which is out near where Rach and John live). The crazy thing is, even though it is not even Hurricane force yet and it is still all the way across the state, we are still having VERY strong wind and LOTS of rain. There have also been tornado warnings over much of South Florida because with winds like this, a tornado can spin up quickly and disappear as quickly as it formed. I guess some (or one) have been spotted up in the air near here but none have touched down so far. So far the power is still on so that's good. Some of the wind gusts may be up to 50 mph even over here on the east coast.

We wanted to get a small video clip but it is hard to actually catch the rain blowing like crazy all over the place. Some of you might not get this video clip we did but we always get amused how in hurricanes, the tv reporters go out in the worst part of the storm to report live. I remember when we had evacuated to Orlando for one of the hurricanes a few years ago and we were watching it on tv from the place we were staying. We watched one of the reporters actually go falling over because the wind was so strong. Of course they always go to the places where it looks the worst. So Kevin and I decided that I would do a "live weather report" from our back porch. It was actually blowing a lot more than it looks like on the video. The wind was blowing the rain so hard into my eyes that I could hardly keep my eyes open. We had our back door open for just a few seconds and the kitchen was getting soaked. It's not scary (other than the tornado watches) but it is not an ordinary storm either. If I would have been thinking, I would have put on a rain poncho to do my "weather report" like they do on tv because then it looks even worse to see the poncho flapping like crazy in the wind. :)

Why it is not my fault that I am overweight.

The blame game has been around since the beginning of time in the Garden of Eden but it seems like in recent years, it has become even more popular than ever before to find anyone or anything else to place blame on. I hear it SO often as a teacher and I'm sure it's no different in any other profession. Goodness, if I was McDonald's after that ridiculous coffee lawsuit years ago, I would have printed on EVERY coffee cup "We know this is an insult to some people's intelligence but for those of you who are too stupid to figure it out - this coffee is VERY HOT! What that means is if you drink it, it WILL burn your mouth!" I'm sorry but it is ridiculous what blaming others/frivolous lawsuits have driven companies to have to say. You should NOT have to tell people not to drink shampoo or that a chainsaw is NOT a toy or that using a hairdryer in the shower could lead to instant death. But... then I was sitting there polishing off a roll while sipping from a 44 oz. pepsi tonight and I thought, "Hey, why not jump on the bandwagon? If everyone else came blame other people/things then so can I."

You see, I've come to the conclusion that the reason that I am overweight is because I love bread and pepsi so much. I'm not sure where this unnatural desire started but I intend to get to the bottom of it. One of my theories is that Pepsi is discriminating against older people - and by older people I mean anyone that can't eat the way they did 10 years ago and stay as skinny. I don't think it's right that it is perfectly fine for a 17 year old to drink soda without pound addage while we poor adults have to pack on the pounds. And bread? Don't get me started on bread. It's one thing for bread making companies to make a loaf of bread for an innocent sandwhich but it's another thing when they make things like rolls and cinnamon rolls and muffins and things that taste so good that you just HAVE to eat them. How DARE they? Do they REALLY expect us to eat such yummy stuff in moderation or turn are noses up at seconds? I suppose they would use the argument that we don't HAVE to eat so much but my thought is that THEY should be the ones to help us out by not selling us all the yummy stuff. Which brings up the point that it is also the grocery stores and convenient stores fault for carrying the starches and soda that tempts us. They should know better than putting it at our disposal - especially cheap soda refills where you take your cup back and get like a week's worth of soda for 80 cents. Actually, now that I think about it, it might also be the government's fault. If fattening foods would have been outlawed we wouldn't be in this mess to start with (I think that is probably President Bush's fault - I'm not sure why but everything else is his fault so this is probably his fault too!) Of course, I think that gyms could be held partly responsible too because they make it so hard to get exercise. Did you know that once you pay them, your fat doesn't start to go away automatically? They actually expect you to DRIVE there and go in and get sweaty. As I sat there thinking about how it was my love for the roll I was eating and the pepsi I was drinking that has made me gain the weight I have gained, (that statement is probably the only statement that is true in this blog but it IS what inspired this sarcastic writings) I realized that something has to be done! I'm not sure if I should sue Pepsi, try to lobby for new food laws, or go on a diet - though I think that going on a diet would be just plain silly. Why put myself through that when it is not my fault that I am overweight? 'Cause just think, if I sue Pepsi and win I will be fat AND rich - then I can buy all the food I want. :)

Forgive me if you don't find that funny - I just like to write, I love sarcasm, and I think I even made a point about the ridiculousness of failing to take responsibility for things. And, of course I know I need to change my diet and exercise more. I was just getting tickled as some of these thoughts were swirling in my head earlier and I thought some of you might enjoy them too. I could have contiued on but didn't want it to get overbearing. Why am I trying to justify myself to everyone? Don't know - I guess I should just end this now. Bye for now - and don't forget - spraying bug spray in your eyes COULD lead to serious injury!

I never thought I would pose for goofy

pictures just for a crazy blog!

We were having some lighting issues - thus

the one dark and one light picture.

More random photos of funny things.

I realize that I am hitting you with lots of blogs all at once - I guess I'm kind of catching up. I still want to get some pictures of our classroom and post them but that won't be for a few more days until Fay passes by and I get back to school.


Kaelyn thought she was smart climbing over
the end of the bed until she started slipping
down and got stuck.


Like any good parents would do, we ran and
got the camera while she hollered. It was just
too good to pass up!


The amazing thing was that as soon as we
helped her out, she was climbing up on the
edge of the bed again!


Kay fell asleep in the morning at the babysitter's today
instead of the afternoon so by early evening she was
acting very tired. She ate a few bites of supper then
pushed it away and said,"Lay down for Mommy" which
translated to, "Will you put your arm out for me to lay
on?" (Yeah it took us a minute to figure that one out
too.)


I was still trying to finish my supper so we asked her
if she wanted to "lay down for Daddy". The second
she heard the camera, her head popped up and she
said, "Look at pictures?" She would lay her head down
and peek up waiting for me to take a picture and then
she would want to see it. Kids today have no concept
of having to wait for a week (or MUCH) longer to see
pictures. I know, I know... and we had to walk to school
uphill both ways in our day too. :)

Cool pictures

The other night the moon was full (or almost full if not). Kevin had been wanting to try to get some night shots using his camera and the tripod (which I didn't even know we had till he told me when I went to take the pictures I posted a couple of weeks ago). I thought they were kind of pretty and worth posting so here they are.



I liked these ones because he got the moon
and its reflection in the water.



He did several things just to experiment. I thought
the color difference in this one was interesting.


This picture was taken from across the canal. This is
what the back of our house looks like if you walk down
one of the other streets on campus across the water
us.

Pretty Princess Pajamas

These are some pj's that we have gotten on really good sales for Kay-Kay (at Sears and the Disney Store). Nothing special about the pics. - just that the pjs are really cute complete with princessy (?) tule/netting stuff. You might think "What's so great about a picture of Kaelyn in pajamas?" and all I can say is that her Mommy thinks they are cute. :)



She is pointing to them here.


And again she is pointing to them.


It's not that I wanted a hundred pictures of
her pointing but I was trying to get a good shot
of the nightgown so I would say,"Let me see
your nightgown" which to her means that she
needs to point to the princesses - I really just
wanted her to stand still for a second.


This set is cute but it is a bit confusing to her
because all 3 of the princesses on here are
wearing golden dresses. How are you supposed
to know which one is Cinderella, Aurora, or Snow
White when their clothes are all wrong! :)

The giggling curse

I was originally going to title this post "Famous Quotes" because the quote I'm going to share with you is what started all of these thoughts - but, my thoughts evolved into a post more about the curse of getting the giggles at the worst times possible.

Last night, Kevin went to prop his foot up on the bed to stretch his legs. When he did, he conked his foot really, really hard on the [wooden] bottom or edge of the bed. I was in brushing my teeth and I heard the thud really loud. It even sounded painful! I walked in to ask him if he was okay and to see what happened. I could tell it really hurt and I felt bad but I couldn't seem to keep from giggling a little bit. So I told him what my brother always used to say when we were kids (thus the "famous quotes" title). If someone would trip and fall or something he would say, (amidst his laughter) "I'm not laughing because you got hurt - I'm just laughing because it looked so funny!" You see, he and I (along with my Mom) have this same trait where we laugh if we are nervous, embarrassed, or any other number of things besides when something's funny. Just in the last couple of years one time when we were all home, we were at my parents church in Massena. Bud and I got tickled about something even though we weren't even next to each other and I couldn't stop laughing. If I looked at him, we both started laughing all over again. Luckily I can laugh quietly usually but it was still so terrible. I thought, "Goodness Becky! Here you are supposed to be an adult and you have a kid of your own and you can't keep your composure." But as embarrassed as I was, I still thought that I was going to have to leave church for a little bit.

I can't even TELL you the number of times when our whole family was supposed to be singing the special song in church. All it took was the piano player to play the song a little differently than we had practiced it, or someone to mix the words up or start singing at the wrong time, and the "mom, only son, and second daughter" half of the family would fall apart into giggles for the rest of the song, lucky if we could stop laughing long enough to sing any more notes. Meanwhile, the other half of the family would valliantly carry on, singing their hearts out very frustrated by the giggling, non-singing half of the family. There were many of those half-giggled, half-sung versions of "Surely Goodness and Mercy" or "Touring that City". Thing is, I usually had to fight tears once I went and sat back down because I was so embarrassed (my mom was the same way) but I just COULDN'T seem to stop laughing in the moment. 'Course, once you get started giggling when you know you need to stop, it is almost impossible to stop.

Then there were the times where we had car problems or a flat tire. I will NEVER forget my mom and us kids going somewhere near Indianapolis, when our station wagon got a flat tire and went bumping down the road. Lynette was a nervous wreck and probably in tears (though I don't remember the tears as a fact), Rachel had such a calm exterior though I'm sure it was stressful to her. She was so helpful (seriously); she was like, "You can get off to the shoulder now, there's an exit coming up. We can cripple into that gas station and call Daddy etc. " Bud and I were helping out by sitting in the backseat giggling of course. We had enough sense to try not to let my mom know we were laughing because she probably would have had a way to scare the giggle out of us. I vividly remember thinking at the time that I wish I could be more mature and helpful like Rachel but I couldn't seem to help myself. If I get a flat tire now (especially by myself) I stress out and I don't usually laugh but it was something about bumping down the road I'm sure combined with us being nervous and knowing my mom was a nervous wreck. I'm certain our laughter was mostly a nervous response.

Before you criticize me too much or think me insensitive, understand that I DON'T LIKE this character trait about myself and I don't intentionally let myself laugh uncontrollably just because I think it's funny. There are/have been times when I would have about paid money to be able to not laugh in situations. Actually though, I think I might be making progress because there are situations now where I am REALLY nervous and I feel this giggle inside me and I know it's stupid because there is nothing funny and I can keep my composure sometimes. Also, more and more now it seems like I tend to cry if I am really embarrassed or do something stupid so I suppose that has to be some kind of progress - at least it's a more appropriate emotion. Just don't leave me in the purse section at Penney's where there's a rich, overweight woman who is loudly griping away about there being no white purses that strike her fancy while she walks through the whole purse section "tooting" all the meanwhile - right Rach? (Yes, that really happened and even Rachel had to walk away quickly because we were both laughing so hard.)

Don't ask because I don't remember the reason for this

pose - there probably was NO good reason. The sad thing

is, Bud is a little more justified in his goofiness here

because he was probably 11 or 12 but I had just

GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL! I think we were

probably making fun of how when some people get their

picture taken (even just a snapshot) they stand real

straight with their arms by their side like a soldier with a

cheesy grin on their face. (Just a guess!) :)

Self-discipline

You may think that this title is referring to a characteristic trait that I wish I had more of when it comes to [not] drinking pepsi. However, it isn't referring to a character trait at all in this case. This is just a funny little story about Kay-Kay. We were eating grilled cheese sandwhiches and soup Monday evening. I was trying to be nice to my stomach due to the fact that my nerves have had me all messed up. Kay had eaten just a couple of bites of her sandwhich when she decided she didn't want anymore. I had cut it in half so I told her she had to at least eat half of it (which really means nothing to her - she has no concept of what half is but anyway). After protesting for a couple of bites, she decided to play the "nice manners card". I held it up to her and she said, "Uh, no thanks." I DO tell her to say that when she is full or doesn't want something someone offers her but it wasn't going to work for her supper. She was still refusing to eat more so I told her that if she didn't take a bite I was going to have to spank her. She promptly looked up and said, "I'm going to get my spoon!" (I keep a couple of wooden spoons which I use when I have to spank her and they seem to be more effective than anything else - especially when it comes to getting her to cooperate with eating.) Kevin looked at me and said, "Did she just say I'm going to get my spoon?" Before I could even answer him, she started to smack her own legs with her hands. Then, after she "gave herself a spanking" she said, "Now you eat that!" at which point she picked up her sandwhich and took a bite. Kevin and I were laughing and laughing - we couldn't help it. I said, "So not only does she warn herself, and then punish herself, but then she actually eats it." We were quite amused. She never laughed or acted smart like she realized she was being funny. I think she just really has the routine memorized and went through it by herself. So I guess you could call it an unusual form of "self- discipline". :)

A little sad.

Kay-Kay had a harder time this morning with going to the babysitter's. She didn't want me to leave her in her bed last night so I sat in beside her on the floor. She had her arm around my neck and would grab on to me every time I started to get up. Then, when she started figuring out what was going on this morning, she wasn't to happy and she just kept whimpering. Kevin said she didn't do too badly once he actually got her there but he said she was just really quiet and he snuck out. So... now Mom's a bit sad again. If you think about us this week, pray for the adjustments - that might sound silly but it really is very hard on me. Gotta' get to my meeting. Have a good day everyone!

A happy Mommy!

I had already planned to do a post with this title but now I have another reason to be a happy Mommy so I will write about both things.

Saturday, I changed some things in Kaelyn's room. She still had her crib set on her bed and matching stuff in her bedroom. I got her a new princess bed set and a few other matching things to go along with the bedspread. Saturday evening I put the new stuff out and changed the bedding on her bed. (I still have other stuff I need to [gradually] do.) I didn't say anything to her about it. I thought I would just wait till she went in for bed. Well, she went into her room a little later to get a toy or something and she noticed the stuff. All the sudden we heard her gasp a little bit and she said, "Yook, it's princess!" She went running all around her room pointing at the various princess things. Then she just kept jumping up and down on the bed singing one of the songs that one of the princesses sings on a movie that she has. I was out doing laundry and she kept saying, "Mommy, Mommy come in here!" When I would follow her into the bedroom she would point to all of the princesses and say, "Is that Belle?, is that Snow White?, etc." and then she would run around pointing at everything. She was SO excited and of course that made me happy - especially since I wasn't sure how she would do with things being changed (she is funny that way). She was a little bothered when she actually got into bed that night because she is used to just the fitted sheet and bedspread and this set has a top sheet so that was almost an issue but we "worked through" that. :) The last thing she said that night before I walked out was, "Good night princess. See you in the morning princess." She is still loving it and of course that makes a mommy happy.
Then, today I had to go back to school. I have been quite teary about it not to mention nervous and stressed out about sending Kaelyn back to a babysitter after she's been with me all summer. We were all up together this morning (rather than having Kay get up and I'm just not there.) She and I had breakfast together and then I got her all ready to go before I had to leave. Kevin said she did really well when he dropped her off; she was a bit hesitant but didn't cry and scream or cling to him. She carried her little Veggie Tales lunchbox(bag) all by herself which Kevin said was quite cute given the fact it about dragged the ground with her carrying it. The thing I was most worried about was the whole potty thing though because she does great at home and as long as I'm around when we're out somewhere but the only time we had someone else watch her where we tried leaving panties on her, she almost immediately had an accident. I was very pleasantly surprised when I went to pick her up this afternoon, and I noticed she had the same clothes on. The babysitter said that Kaelyn didn't tell her at first but she would go when the babysitter took her in to the bathroom and then toward the end of the day the last time that she went she actually told her so I was very, very relieved and happy that that went that well. Kaelyn typically doesn't do well when ANYTHING changes around her. She seemed to have a good day and of course that is 95% of my struggle with going back to school so that was a huge relief to me! So all in all, though I still feel sad about leaving her again during the days, I know that it will be better since I am only teaching Mon., Tues., and every other Wed. and I am a pretty happy mommy and proud of Kay-Kay's progress.




These things on the wall are foam decorations. They
are stuck on with the little sticky squares so they can
be moved and won't damage the walls. They didn't
cost that much and she LOVES them.


Looking at the princess wall decorations.


She will point at them over and over again naming each one.


Jumping on the bed while singing "I've got the keys
to the kingdom".

(Hopefully I can talk Kevin into getting a picture of her sometime when he takes her to the babysitter.)