Sexual Harrassment Training...

I am currently sitting in sexual harassment training... the guy is quite interesting, but he has yet to say anything that I would actually thought about doing??? And frankly, I have TONS of stuff to do, so I really could care less about what he has to say! I mean, seriously.... I need to grade papers and plan a lesson for class in an hour! AUGH>>>>

I'm tired...

Ok, this is going to be one of those posts... you know, the ones you don't want to post but you know you will feel better if your friends tell you they love you???

Ok, here goes! I'M TIRED! I'm tired of friends who are too busy. I'm tired of husbands that won't mow the yard. I'm tired of children who refuse to participate in the daily care of the household. I'm tired of messy/cluttered houses and laundry that needs to be done. I'm tired of worrying about money. I'm tired of not having clothes because of weight loss, and not having the money to go buy new ones. I'm tired of my office feeling like the meat freezer at the grocery store. I'm tired of unmotivated students. I'm tired of husbands who are stressed about school and are taking it out on me. I'm tired of rude people and people you can't trust. I think I could go on all day, but the one tired that probably sticks out the most to me is that I'm tired of always screwing things up no matter how much I am trying not to and am quite thankful that my God is a graceful God... otherwise, there is nooooo way that I survive.

On that note... I think I'm going to pick my children up from school and lay on the couch for an hour with my eyes closed and a blanket over my head. Maybe if they don't see me they will forget I'm there????

Ok... so I came home to hide away under my covers and feel sorry for myself, and in the mailbox was a flyer from Women of Faith. I looked through it and put it on the bookshelf. I then looked down and saw the bible studies that I purchased while at the conference. I picked up the first one... "Resting in Him: I need to slow down but I can't!" Since reading a Bible study requires no movement, I picked it up along with my Bible and plopped down to rest. Here are a little of what touched my soul...

47% of people say they are concerned with the level of stress in their life

Sometime the stress of life can manifest itself in our attitudes and responses to daily life. (ouch)
God desires to restore you. Your level of exhaustion and need for rest will never match God's desire to give you rest.

Mark 1:21-34 In this passage, Jesus taught crowds, cast out demons, went for a home visit w/some healing, went back to town and cast out more demons and performed more healing acts.

Mark 1:35 says that Jesus went to a quiet place and prayed.

I guess the point of it all is that even Jesus had a lot on His plate and instead of taking it out on the world around Him (like we so often do) He went to a solitary place and was alone with God in prayer. Hmmm.... sounds like a good idea, huh? Amazing how instead of calling out to the Lord in prayer I just simply get frustrated and want to crawl under a rock. This definitely gave me something to think about. I'm still not going to do the dishes or mop the floor, but perhaps it influence the words that come out of my mouth this evening.

My day in pictures...

So I think I figured out where all the dove go when it is dove season... they come into town to eat people's cat food! This morning, while I was attempting to get dressed, I kept hearing weird noises in the back yard. I look out the window to see a covey of dove chowing on wet cat food...



This is our newest addition to the family. His name is Chocolate... but my Spanish instructor is the one who gave him to us and his family referred to him as "Choco" (done with a Spanish accent)!
He is in serious need of a make-over, but I can't find anyone who can get him in NOW! ha! Boy dogs do not need pony-tails! Boy dogs in families where life is crazy especially do not need pony-tails! I cannot fix my hair, the girls hair, and the dogs hair everyday! ha!


ANd seriously I am about sick of the rain! I know I should be thankful that it is raining... but COME ON! I can only take soooo much! Between the mud and the dogs who might drown in the puddles my carpet needs to be cleaned... my students smell (you know, that wet dog smell boys often get).... and my runny nose won't go away! AUGH! I wouldn't mind the rain if it could come in spurts... rain every Monday for example, but no! our forecast shows the rest of the week of rain! I guess I can't really do anything about this though... so I might as well try to find some positives... um... I'll come back to that one!



O

Updates...

No, I haven't dropped off the edge of the planet, although I am feeling just a tad overwhelmed with life. The beginning of the semester is always a little crazy for me... this semester I am teaching 6 classes... 3 of which I have never taught before... and taking two! I'm not really sure what I was thinking when I said yes to all of this! AUGH! Oh well... I will survive... I always do!

I hope everyone is doing well... I'll post pics of the first day of school etc later!

Quote for the day...

Quote from "That 70's Show"... "The only thing smart about you is your mouth!" Modified quote from Rt "The only thing smarter than your brain is your mouth!" Hmmm... wonder who he was thinkin' about when he said that????

I leave at lunch on Friday to go to the Women of Faith conference in Ft. Worth/Dallas. My friend Amy and I are going with her sister's church. Keep us all in your prayers... I mean, 100 women on a charter bus driving to the metroplex... don't you feel sorry for the bus driver???? haha! I'll tell you all about it when I get back!

NKOTB...

Have you ever noticed that each generation seems to have certain musicians that people either loved or hated? In my mom's days it was Elvis and for her Neil Diamond. When I was in elementary school it was Michael Jackson and Madonna... and in jr high it was NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK! I've previously posted about NKOTB and my love for them, and I just found out that on Sept 2nd they are releasing a new album! YIPPEE! My kids are making fun of me, cuz I have been playing their old songs on the computer... wonder what they would think if I busted out the posters I have hidden in the garage! :) Anyway, the NKOTB tour has begun and they will be in Dallas on OCT 19th... and I am sooooo going! If you want to go with me, let me know, my plan is to buy tickets this week! ;)

Now off to WM to buy their greatest hits album!

Holy cow... what a day...

I figured I would post pictures of where we ended up after I could no longer handle the jump around place. Even the kids were toooooo hot to be there. It didn't help that Megs ripped out her earring and was having an emotional meltdown over the blood oozing from the hole that she has had all of 3 weeks. (Rest assured, we home cleaned them, and put the suckers back in...)

The pool was very relaxing and cool after the heat from the first venture of the day... and it would have been perfect except for the flying ants that were ALL OVER THE POOL! You could tell the manager wasn't there too, because the lifeguards/kids would get in, skim for about 3 seconds, hop out and call it good...meanwhile, my children were no so happy about the ants and even I was having a difficult time making myself want to hop in with the ants. I wish I had a picture of the suckers... they were scary looking. Bigger than fire ants, smaller than red ants, BIG WINGS! Anyway, we made it about 2 hrs and then we headed home.

These next pics are from my adventure this morning! We were taking my daughters friend home to Cleburne, as well as their refrigerator that we had borrowed when we moved into their house. I made it all the way up HWY 80 to I-20, pulled onto I-20, hadn't reached 45mph yet, and realized the fridge was FLYING THROUGH THE AIR! It hit the asphalt and went sliding towards the 18 wheeler that was behind me! Luckily, no one was injured and other than a few tires squealing, there were no accidents. A very nice good Samaritan stopped and helped me load the fridge back into the truck and I took it all back to Robert at work. So much for taking Charis back to her parents... the fridge was not that heavy when Robert and I loaded it this morning... pretty sure I did something to my back just now though... I have taken a muscle relaxer, anti-inflammatory, and am perched on the couch with a bag of frozen broccoli behind my back (the only frozen thing I could find to work)! Anyway, now I must find another fridge to give my friend to replace the one that had met it's demise!

All I can say is God is good, because it could have been soooo much worse, and holy cow! why does my life have to be soooo interesting?

The Jump Around...

Ok, I know I'm probably just being a very crabby parent, but seriously???!!! 7$ per kid??? I know that it is for all day (which really means 10-6, but we didn't even get there til 1:30), and I know it costs money to run the air etc, but I don't know how much of this I can take! For those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about, we are currently at The Jump Around and I am quite miserable! Again, maybe I'm just being crabby... and that wouldn't surprise me as I'm definitely having one of those days, but I think the screaming kids and the lack of air conditioning is a little more than I can take. When she told me the air conditioners were out I should've taken that as a clue and gone to the pool, but instead, I paid the 28$ so the kids wouldn't be disappointed, but I'm pretty much ready to go home! I'm all for blowing money on the kids, but I'd rather get something for myself out of it... as in a movie, some peace and quiet... you get the point! Not to mention that the OCD me can barely handle the thought of all the germs hanging out on all of the jumping castles! Deep breath, deep breath, deep breath....

Great Song!

I was determined to clean part of my house this morning, but then I got distracted by CMT (which is what I use for background noise for both me and the dog while I clean). Anyway, this video came on... and I had to stop it, rewind it, and record it... and then I had to find it online so I could share it with all of you...

Now, if only I could convince both of my daughters that she is right!


http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/--184511943

(Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to embed it... something about a tag being broken??????)

The week of early mornings...

Our church has a program called "His Kids" each summer where the kids work on a musical to perform at the end of the summer. They meet all summer one day a week and then for a week, right before the program, the meet daily from 8-3! I usually look forward to music camp, because it gives me a much needed break from parenting and I can get stuff done! This year, though, 8am is killing me! I would rather have the girls home all day bickering then have to get them up, dressed, with lunches packed, and to church by 8am! Well... maybe not bickering, but you get my point!

I'm trying to think positive thoughts about how this is practice for the beginning of school in a couple of weeks, but I just can't! I want to sleep late and I hate mornings! I keep hearing friends that are older than me talk about how they can't sleep late and go to bed earlier now... when is that going to happen to me? I mean, I don't remember ever having to wake my mother up to tell her we were going to be late... she was just always awake before me. Was it this hard for her to get up? What about you, friends, how are mornings in your house? Will I ever reach the point where I 'can't' sleep in? At what age does that exactly happen, cuz I'm pretty sure I've heard people my age who 'can't sleep in!' Does it just all of a sudden happen? Or will it come on gradually? ha! Ok, I think you get the point!

And although I've gone to bed at a decent hour each night, It's like I'm a walking zombie by 3. Today, it's even worse... Megs called at 11:20 to ask where her lunch was... I was supposed to be picking it up... OOPS! I completely forgot! That's not the only thing I have forgotten... and while individually it all appears to be little things, I'm sick of getting home and realizing I forgot things! Maybe I should take some ginseng or something... or wait, I have a better idea... I could just sleep til 8am and my brain would function better... ha! In my dreams...

Anyway, hope everyone is having a great day!

Benefit of a blog...

I decided this week that I really, really, really, needed to get my photos organized and catch up scrapbooking. Let me just say how much easier said than done that is. When cameras had film, I was very good at taking the pictures to be developed immediately and scrapbooking them. Now, I load them on my computer, where I can ignore them. I will say that my blog was quite helpful in all of this organizing! I was able to look through the years (wow, 2 1/2 years) and see when pictures were taken! It was kindof fun to see how much everyone has grown (or shrank in my case) in the last 2 years! And to see how God has brought us through some pretty difficult times! Amazing! Ok... I've procrastinated enough... time to keep organizing!

Messages from a Chocolate Wrapper...

I love speech time... I had a student give an informative speech on chocolate! She brought little baggies of dove chocolates and Hershey kisses for everyone! Yippee! (I got to take the extras home!) Anyway, this is what one of mine said!

If you can't read it... it says... "Smile. People will wonder what you've been up to!" Made me laugh!

My other piece said "Be mischievous. It feels good." Perhaps not such a good piece of advice, since it is something I struggle with already! Oh well, hope everyone is having a great day!

Sun overload...

I'm guessing no one felt the need to divulge their marital prayer habits... I understand, pray is personal! I'm definetly still working through some of that myself.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure we are all of sun overload at our house. Kali, Megan and I are all a little red in the face... probably time to take a pool break!

Have a great weekend! We don't have any big plans... just playing our new found past time Carcassonne.... which might I say is an AWESOME puzzle/strategy that has managed to take over every evening for my husband and I! It is a game that won board game of the year a couple of years back, and it originated in Germany. If you are ever looking for something to do, give us a call and you can come play this addicting game with us! :)

Seriously Satan...

One of many of the things that Robert and I struggle with in our marriage is praying together... or even talking about praying together. I mean, I pray daily (and often during the day), but I have no clue how often my husband prays or even what he prays about. The few times in our marriage that we tried to start and end our day with a prayer together, we slowly began to feel Satan attack... or at least I think that's what it was... it just seemed that each time we were doing what we needed to do all 'hell' broke loose in our life.

Anyway, over the last few months, I have personally grown in my walk and really tried to do the things that God is calling me to do... and one of those things is to bring prayer into my marriage. So, here is my question for you... how often do you pray with your husband? Do you do Bible Studies together? Do you wake up in the morning and pray, what about bed time? Or, do you just pray together for the 'big stuff'? Please be honest with me... if you don't pray together (and don't mind sharing), why not? If you do, how often?

Oh and I would just like to say how annoyed I am that my dear hubs has come home from work and is in quite the mood. Ah, the joys of the inpatient man... Looks like it's going to be a loooonnnnggggg evening!

It's a girl...

OK, wait, I'm not saying that I'm having a girl... that would be impossible! What I mean is that my girls have decided that they are girls. In the last couple of weeks they have each gone through some kind of transformation of types... Kali asks me to brush her hair and asks if her clothing matches... Megan has wanted to wear earrings and asks me if her clothing is fashionable... HOLY COW! Now, it's not that I don't want my kids to match or wear cute clothing, but do you know how expensive it can get when they actually care about their clothing??? To top things off, today they convinced me to take them to the mall for ear repiercings... Kali needed her first holes pierced and Megs wanted second holes. (Who knew those were still in fashion...)

Anyway, I'm sure Robert will be all kinds of excited when he gets home and realizes how much we spent on cute little earrings etc, but they are awfully excited! He should be way more concerned about the future school clothes shopping we need to do if they are both concerned about clothing...

Summer...

It just dawned on me the other day that we are on the downhill slide of summer... and it makes me a little sad. I've had a little bit of the green monster as I've read about all the great trips that my friends have taken with their kids and it's made me realize that this summer has been filled with a lot of unpacking, rearranging, bickering between children, the pool and that's about it! We haven't gone anywhere except Ft. Worth for a few hours to visit a friend at Cook's. In kid world, I've been told, this is the boringest (or to be grammatically correct most boring) summer ever! I had great ideas about things we could do this summer, but they never really materialized. Oh, well... 5 more weeks to get something accomplished! Perhaps the place to start is by getting out of bed before 10am...

Thanks for the prayers... and advice

Thanks for the feedback and prayers. I should probably start by saying that we have done many of the modifications that ya'll suggested and Kali simply needs more. In fact, she asked me last week if she is retarded, because she can't remember when we tell her to do something. She also has a reading issue that we can't seem to diagnose and by gaining control of the ADHD symptoms, I am hoping to figure out how to fix the reading issue. So drugs was kindof the last resort...

As for the other child... Megs... it's difficult to put into words all that she struggles with, but to name a few OCD, perfectionist, severe anxiety, emotional roller coaster... etc. etc. My guess is the emotional roller coaster comes from the pre-teen hormones flowing through her veins... as for the rest of it... God only knows. The dr gave her some suggestions as to how to handle some of the emotions she deals with and the people that she encounters... that's about it for now. He wants to watch her for a while longer to see what happens... another words... no meds, just continue to cope. I'm not sure how I feel about this as he doesn't have to watch her struggle daily through life. But, I think I will try to start some counseling with her and who knows, maybe with Kali under control I will have more energy to help MEgs. The most difficult part of this all is that she struggles with things that I don't even understand... and I'm seriously not sure how to deal with it!

Anyway, thanks for the prayers... I think I'm going to head to the pool... my way of coping with my crazy life!

On a lighter note... I hope this link works as the video cracked me up this morning... it is called THE DONT SONG... as in what husbands shouldn't do! Enjoy your friday laugh... if it works!

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=17891468452

Prayer Requests

Ok ladies... I need some serious prayers for my children. We have an appt with the family dr on Thursday for each of them... Kali for ADHD and Megs for severe anxiety. I don't want to go to this appt... It took me 2 weeks to even make the appt... but I can't take it anymore... my house is a zoo and every time I turn around there is someone having an emotional breakdown.

I'm feeling quite guilty for not medicating Kali during the school year right now, as I frankly don't know how her teacher dealt with her. The kid has no impulse control, excessive amounts of energy, and can't even sit through a hannah episode, oh and I can't forget that she looks at me like I'm speaking Chinese every time I tell her to do something. Previously, my dr suggested behavior modifications and lowering my standards, and just seeing how she did in 2nd grade. Well... she isn't going to make it to second grade at this rate and I really don't think it is fair to set a child up for failure like this! There are a lot of behaviors that people have pointed out to me that she does, that I hadn't even noticed... like she can't actually sit on her bottom through a meal, she stands most of the time while she eats or sits on her knees, bottom, feet, stands, knees, bottom, feet... you get the picture... apparently, she is always moving in some manner too... not that I didn't notice it myself, I just thought she did it more in my presence! Anyway, there are many more symptoms of ADHD that she has, but I'd be here all freakin' day! :)

Megs is an entirely different ballgame. She was treated for anxiety in kindergarten, but over time we were able to wean off of the medication. I guess the pre-teen hormones that are flowing through her veins are causing her ability to cope to decrease, cuz let me tell you about the summer we are having! Several friends have told me of panic/anxiety attacks that she has had when I wasn't around... and they know because their children have told them. How crappy is it when other 10 yr olds don't want to play with your kid because they know there is anxiety? Things that should be easy for Megs aren't, so how is she supposed to cope with the hard things? She won't ask for ketchup at MCD's, she won't talk to a friend at the pool if they are there with someone else, she calls me after 30 min at home with her sister to ask when I'm coming home! UGH! All of these things individually wouldn't be that big of a deal, but together and happening daily is not so fun or healthy for a 10 yr old child. What's she going to do when she starts 5th grade and realizes she has 4 teachers... or 6th and has 8 teachers???? Holy cow... she will seriously freak! She can't even handle being asked to move to another chair at choir practice... totally freaked her out for 2 hrs even though the director specifically told her she wasn't in trouble! Sunday at lunch she apparently freaked out because her food was touching... and I didn't even see it... if I had, I probably would have told her to get over it... Oh my... as you can probably 'hear' in my post, I'm not exactly the most patient when it come to this stuff...

Anyway, as you can see we are dealing with a lot here. I don't so much mind the 'stigma' of Kali and her ADHD... or at least it is something I can handle. What I don't want is the 'stigma' of an anxiety disorder or OCD for Megs... that is not ok for a 10 yr old and I honestly think my dr is going to tell me I'm a loon. At least I do have past medical history to go off of, and if you've met my husband you know there is quite a bit of genetic issue there too... oh and did I mention my own prescriptions for some of this? FUN, Fun... isn't parenting grand?????

Updates (I use that title alot, huh?)

Karena came home safe and sound last night... PRAISE GOD! She was speaking and moving like normal, but the final MRI showed a few abnormalities. The hope is she won't require any physical or speech therapy, but she seems to get overwhelmed and overstimulated quite easily! Keep praying she continues to improve!

My children are DRIVING ME CRAZY! They cannot seem to keep their hands off each other. Yesterday, Kali punched Megs, today Megs scratched and pinched Kali! They both ended up with a red hiney, but seriously now... QUIT IT~! I thought summer was supposed to be fun! Holy cow! If you know some magical solution for this let me know... as of right now all I can come up with is heading to the pool where at least their bickering is drowned out by the splashing! (hee hee... I made a funny... drowned... get it... sorry, bad joke!) Anyway, pray for this situation too! I don't know that I have it in me to handle another 8 wks!

JW

Prayers... prayers... prayers...

Sorry I haven't been around this week... life has been a tad crazy! Kali's buddy Karena was admitted to Hendrick Hospital on Wednesday and care flighted to Cook's on Thursday. Keep her family in your prayers... she had strep last Sunday and Tuesday night was very disoriented. Her parents (Kayla and Shane) took her to see Dr. Wylie on Wednesday morning and he admitted her immediately. By the middle of the afternoon she was completely unresponsive and we were all quite scared. They did many tests and labeled it encephalitis and sent her off to Cook's. At Cook's they have agreed that it is encephalitis, but cannot find the cause. As of right now, they suspect the strep virus went array and caused the inflammation in her brain. Because the swelling in her brain was in her frontal lobe, she has been silent since Wednesday. (This is not normal for Karena!) Friday was the first day that she opened her eyes and seemed alert... Today she said a few words. A friend and I are going up tomorrow as it is killing us to sit here and wait, but please keep everyone in your prayers. The dr's told Shane that they felt like they could be looking at a 2 wk stay at Cook's!

On a side note, we have learned much about encephalitis and I would just like to encourage all of you to be quite careful when playing with kittens/cats that you don't know or swimming in a lake as both of these are carriers of viruses that cause encephalitis. In fact, kittens carry the herpes virus and a single scratch can cause all of what Karena has experienced this week! The lake/pond/river can carry ameba's that cause encephalitis! EWW! I'm trying not to be completely grossed out, but it is difficult when you see your child's best buddy almost comatose in the hospital bed.

Another side note... Karena is the first child that I have met that can keep up with Kali and has never complained that Kali was too rough... Kali and Karena both attack life in full force and can often be found rolling around in the floor wrestling with each other... this is part of what has been so difficult for everyone on the sidelines... the child that is never still or quiet cannot move or talk. I'm hoping that when Kali walks into the room tomorrow there is a different Karena laying there... the one who tries to jump right out of the bed and attack her! :)

Anyway, thanks for the prayers...