Tuesday, February 27, 2007

To much not to share

Tonight at Granger was quite the night! I thought that you might enjoy some of the details. We had 6 more children than last night. Last night was calm and quiet, tonight was anything but calm. We had some REAL characters, who will remain nameless. One of the first little girls in.... was Miss ENERGY! I promise you she never sat still the entire night. She ate her popcorn and watched the movie all while walking around. She was as cute as could be, but very busy. I will forever think of her as "the little butterfly". Character number two was a sweet, seven year old boy. He talked and acted far above his years. He kept asking me math problems to show me how smart he was. (he did consistently get them wrong, but he sounded so confident of his answer) I really enjoyed this guy. My favorite time with him was when we were playing Duck, Duck, Goose. We play it differently. Instead of using Duck and Goose, you have to use other words. For example...chocolate, chocolate, vanilla/ dot, dot, stripe/ happy, happy, sad. You get the picture. Well, Mr. Math was so proud of himself for coming up with a great one. He started out...church, church, church, prister! He did prister to me. I did not get up like I was supposed to, I just sat there going, "Prister, what does prister mean?" He looked at me and said, "You know...Prister!" (as if I didn't hear him the first time) I said, "No, I don't know prister. What are you saying?" He stood there for a couple of seconds and then he realized what he meant to say. He said, "Oh, Minister!" We all laughed so hard. He had blended preacher and minister and came up with PRISTER. He was adorable. Characters number three and four came as a couple. They are "boyfriend and friend". She just turned 5 today and he is much older than her...he is 6 and a FAMOUS dodge ball player! (I know this because he told me so) They apparently have been a couple for sometime. The older sister of the little girl told my helper and I all about how much these two "love" each other. We couldn't keep these two apart from each other, they always some how ended up together. I am not too worried about this "relationship", I have known this family for years, they won't let this go on for too long.
Jeff had an award ceremony to go to at the Tab. He was here on the property so we left the children home watching movies. Don't worry grandparents, he had the cell phone if they needed him. They did a great job as far as I know. The only CATASTROPHE was that Joel some how, for how long I don't know, played in the (flushed) toilet while everyone was busy watching movies. Yes, I agree that is DISGUSTING!!! How I discovered it was worse, but you don't need those details. Well there was nothing I could do about it except wash him up and change his clothes and PRAY that he doesn't get sick!
Let me end on a happier note. Amy had me pull her tooth out tonight. She was so excited!
Jeff worked last Saturday, so tomorrow is his day off!!! Yippee. I get to spend time with my husband tomorrow. We will not be working at Granger, so the entire day will be a day OFF! (except for school, house cleaning, and cooking that is)

Monday, February 26, 2007

Where I will be

I am just prewarning you that I probably won't be blogging much these next two weeks. My family and I are going to be working at Granger almost every night. These pictures are from my classroom. I only had six children tonight and one was Amy. We had SO much fun. I am really looking forward to these nights!! We usually have about 35 children every Thursday night. I forgot how much I truly miss small numbers.

Isn't this room very entertaining!!?

Saturday, February 24, 2007

An eventful Saturday


Today had lots of exciting things happen. Daniel had a basketball game. He is number 4. I realize that the picture is hard to see, but Daniel is the one with the black shoes on heading toward the basket. He had some friends come to see him play. Mr. Ray, Titus, and Donnie are seated next to Amy watching the game.

Lauren had a friend here for the day. She and Deborah played many games together. They also went down to the kitchen to help Jeff cook supper for the men's retreat that is here. Lauren had a great time finally having someone over her age. Most of the children that stay over are younger than Lauren. Thank you Lord for friends. I must say that Deborah was not only fun for Lauren, but she was a lot of fun for Amy too!! Amy really likes Deborah. Thank you Deborah, for including Amy in your fun!

Amy, Emily, and Joanna had fun with playdough. Joanna is a great to have around. She is fun for the whole family (and the family next door). She adores Joel, plays with Emily, and talks to me. I consider her a friend of mine. Both girls are Maines' and I loved having them over. I look forward to the next time they are allowed to come play.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Friday night is here!

Tonight is THE Friday night sleepover that they all have been waiting for. Everything is going so well!! We really need to do this more often. The kids are all getting along without any trouble. We have Joanna, Joshua, and Mary Maines for this special night.

I was allowing all the children the chance to stay up late. Everyone had a blast staying up, but Joel tuckered out before his time. He was just so happy that I hated to put him to bed before everyone else. Then all of a sudden he crawled up into Jeff's lap and fell asleep!
We might be getting a new refrigerator. I went to a Whirlpool outlet center today and they have some great deals. I think that we can get a really nice 21 cubic foot one for under $600.00. We are not rushing to get it, but we are talking about it. We were given some money and our current refrigerator makes HORRIBLE, loud noises all the time. I kind of hate getting a new one when we really don't need it, but it sure would be nice!!

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Colorful



Amy actually chose this outfit on purpose!! As Karen pointed out, Amy dresses with personality. I must admit, somehow it works for her. She will probably never be accused of not wearing enough color!
Emily on the other hand dresses a little less colorful. For now, I like her choosing Joel's outfit for the day. Can you imagine what Amy would dress him in?
Onto a totally different subject. The highlight of my day yesterday was taking Joel outside for a "run". He was so excited to be outside. I took him for a walk, but he didn't walk....he ran!! He is going to be another child that loves the great outdoors and all the activities that it offers. Out of five children only one likes to stay inside, during the winter, like me. I am not complaining. I enjoy that they love being outside, I just don't understand it!!
I got a blender for Christmas. I need help!! Do any of you have some great receipes for fruit smoothies or milkshakes? Please send them to me ASAP!!

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Chicken Stuffing

This receipe is one of the easiest I do.

You will need a 9x13 in. pan
1 can each of cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soup
2 boxes of Stove Top Stuffing (I use the off brand)
3 or 4 cups of cooked cut up chicken pieces
2 cups of cheddar cheese

Make the stuffing as the box directs. Place stuffing on the bottom of the 9x13 pan. Sprinkle chicken pieces on top of stuffing. Spread undiluted soups over chicken (make sure that all chicken is covered). Bake for 30 min. at 350 degrees. Pull from oven then add cheese on top and let it sit until cheese melts. It is now ready to serve.
A different way to make this and get the vegetables in the meal is....add cooked mixed vegetables at the same time that you add the chicken.

Emily was having fun with Joel today. She tucked him snuggly in the laundry basket. As you can tell....he LOVED it!


Monday, February 19, 2007

Nothing exciting happened

Today was pretty uneventful. I woke up at 6:30...showered and spent time with my Savior. Around 8:30 I fed Joel breakfast. Did school with the children all morning and fed Joel lunch around 1:00. The girls went to basketball practice with Jeff. Daniel played out in the snow all afternoon. During this time I cleaned the house, did laundry and wrote Thank you notes to our supporters. When they came home, we all had supper and watched a movie. Jeff is upstairs tucking the children in bed as I write this. Now I can clean the house again, do more laundry and probably go to bed. Tomorrow I will come up with something more exciting to write about. Maybe I will give you a receipe to try.
PS- The children are VERY relieved that their friends do get to come over this week. I wish you could have seen the looks on their faces when I told them lastnight. PRICELESS!!

Sunday, February 18, 2007

I am SO bad!

My mom would do this to me ALL the time. She would come up with some falsehood and convince me that it was true. She loved playing with me like that. My whole family did it to me. I believed some really funny things. At one point in my life, my Uncle Harvey had me convinced that I would become a BOY when I grew up!! He was a hoot! He was always coming up with something to convince me of. I loved it when I was little and I still do. Now to carry on this strange (but oh so fun) tradition I do the same thing to my children. Today's joke is so much fun. The children have had a sleepover planned for this Friday night, but things have "kind of" changed. Lauren and I have convinced Emily, Daniel and Amy that congress has passed a new law. There will be NO Friday this week. Their freinds will not be able to come over this week and spend the night, because Friday has been canceled. (You really have to be good at keeping a straight face during these times of convincing them. It is a great ability that I have gotten from my mom! She is one of the best at this art.) Well you may be asking yourself, "How did she convince them of something so silly." Good question, for those that asked it. I just told them that too many people go out and party on Friday nights and don't spend enough time at home with their families. So congress canceled Friday so that people would stay home! Daniel said, "That is a great idea!" He and Amy believed us in no time at all, but they are very disappointed that they "have to wait until next week". Emily was a little harder to convince, but she fell for it. Don't worry.... I will tell them the truth at supper tonight! I am sure that we will all get a great laugh out of this one.

Karen and I survived!

Saturday the 17th of Febuary, 2007 was the ABSOLUTE BEST day of shopping I have ever had!! Karen and I left home at 10:00 am and did not return until 11:30 PM!! 13 1/2 hours of being away from our HOUSE and just being together. At one point today, Jeff accused me of running away from home, without him knowing it. He said, "I was leading him to believe that I was just a half hour away shopping for the day, but in all acuality I was half way across the country!" (I must admit, we were gone long enough to pull that one off!) I love his sense of humor, he makes me laugh everyday!
I have never felt so good while shopping. I know that a GREAT part of my awesome time, had everything to do with the excellent sales that we found! I feel like I do when I have found a great garage sale. Today was better than a garage sale day. Probably my best bargain of the day was the $84.00 coat for....... $5.97! My favorite buy was my $2.00 shower curtain hooks. They were the EXACT ones that I have been praying for!! The next super buy was... next year's winter coat set for Joel (hopefully he will be able to wear it for two years, I got it big enough). The set included a coat, snow pants, gloves and a hat!! I got it all for FREE! Well....I did have to open a charge card, purchase it on the card and then they took $15.00 off my total. The total for the set came to $13.67, so I had to charge the pairs of gloves that I was also buying. I charged them, then I paid the bill right there with cash, I owe them nothing. Now all I have to do is cancel the card when it comes in the mail and cut it up!! I love the way these things work! Next, my lunch and dinner didn't cost me a dime. My wonderful mother saw to that. She sent all 7 of us a gift certificate for our favorite resturant for Valentine's Day!! She also set $5.00 extra in my envelope. I used up my gift certificate and the extra $5.00 today. Thank you Mom!!
I bought a few other special things, but I won't bore you with anymore details. I need to get to bed now, it is 1:40 in the morning.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Checking In

Not much is going on here. Well to be totally honest, today the house could burn to the ground and I wouldn't notice. I am already half way through my book!!! I will be putting it down for the night and not picking it up again until tomorrow night. I am going shopping for the day with my great friend Karen. Unless something funny happens tomorrow, you will probably not here from me again until Sunday. (I will be done with the book by then)

Thursday, February 15, 2007

I did it!!


I lost a total of 6 pounds so far!!! I can start my book TODAY!!!


It is now much later in the day...I never started the book. I will save it for the weekend. It is so hard to start a book when I have to do school with the children the next day. I will start it tomorrow after lunch.
Many of you know that I teach a class for children, once a week, at a church. I do this on Thursday nights. Tonight I was asking my class of K-1st graders what they got for their mommies for Valentine's Day. These children went all out for their mommies. Some of the things were boxes of chocolate, flowers, cards, and homemade gifts. Well... Amy is in my class, and to be funny I was making a point to her that she got me nothing! I asked in front of everyone, "Amy Jo what did you get for YOUR mommy?" I expected her to say, "Nothing". She was too quick for that and she had an answer. She very confidently said,"I gave her time to rest!!" Well I busted up laughing. She said, "What? I went outside and played for the afternoon." She was right...she did give me one of my favorite gifts...time to rest!! I just love that child so much.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Happy Valentine's Day

Today was the BEST Valentine's Day I have ever had!!! Jeff took the day off from work and just spent it at home with us. Then some VERY wonderful gals offered to watch our children for the evening so that Jeff and I could have a date. These gals took care of all five of the kids (and twenty other children:) for FREE and fed them too!! Jeff and I had a fantastic time!! I can't imagine a better Valentine's Day!

Monday, February 12, 2007

As it should be

Today was a great day. Joel took two naps and he was MUCH happier...and so was I!! Lauren and Emily decided to get along today. They wanted to dress alike and do their hair the same way. I have been praying for their relationship. Today was just a glimpse of what could come in the future. YIPPEE!!!

Sunday, February 11, 2007

I was wrong!

I don't think that Joel is ready to give up his morning nap. He fell asleep in his highchair after breakfast this morning. Tomorrow we will go back to two naps!

Well our sleepover went great. We no sooner got the Mann's home and there were 3 Maines children here to play. They stayed the afternoon and for supper. I was forced to give them back sometime around 8 o'clock lastnight. We all had a lot of fun. They are going to spend the night Tuesday thru Wednesday. I can't wait until they get here!
We have had no extra children in our house today, but I am going crazy!! I swear that I have cleaned this house 3 times today and it doesn't look like I have touched it. Joel is an EXPERT at making this house messy. He pulls things out of where they belong and drags them around the house until he finds something new to play with. He NEVER puts anything away. I spend my day picking up after him. He will learn soon enough to put things away, I realize that this is just a phase, but today it is really bothering me! Probably hormones or something related to it.
Jeff just asked me to come up with a list of possible people that we could have raise our children in case we both die. How do you decide such a thing. Who could handle raising five extra children? At the moment, I am at a loss for possible people. The couple would have to be young enough to have the energy required to take care of my crew. They would have to be very special for us to trust them with our greatest treasures. They would have to love my children! As overwhelmed as I feel today, just thinking about choosing someone to raise my children makes me realize how much I love my role as their mommy!! I am so blessed! Thanks Lord for the new perspective, I needed it!!

Friday, February 9, 2007

Sleepover



I love having a friend who has children the same ages as mine. My friend Maria's children are my favorite children to have over for a sleepover. I usually don't want to send them home when it is all over. Our children just do not fight, they really get along with each other. Moriah and Emily are the ones on the floor. Daniel and Micah are eating pizza. Jocelyn is Amy's BEST FRIEND! They are so cute together. Last but not least are Lyndelle and Joel. No, she did not sleepover. I am not that brave. Lyndelle was just here for a few hours so that Jeff and Maria could go out on a date. I had so much fun with her. It was like having twins for the night!
Okay now on to my life. I have something to tell you. My friend Sheila is going through a REAL hard time right now. Her daughter Susanna is having medical problems, they have been in and out the hospital, had many tests done and they have NO answers. The family is scared, but they are trusting the hand of our Heavenly Father. Well Life Action had a prayer meeting for her this morning. I love Sheila and her family, so I had to go to this prayer meeting. Here is my confession....I did NOT want to go! I hate praying in a group of people. I went to the meeting, but I never said a word the entire time. I kept sitting there comparing myself to these other ladies who were praying. I just couldn't pray as wisely as them. Why do I do this to myself? I do this in a lot of areas of my life, but I really do not enjoy feeling so inferior to people. If any of you have any answers, please share them with me.
I am so excited. I just found the answer to my question on someone else's blog. I just had to add the quote. "You will never really enjoy other people, you will never have stable emotions, you will never live a life of Godly contentment, you will never conquer jealousy and love others as you should until you thank God for making you the way HE did." Isn't that an awesome quote!!?

Thursday, February 8, 2007

He asked me to do it

I am not one of those parents who thinks all has to be fair in regard to my children, but Daniel asked so nicely I had to do it. He asked me to please take his picture while he was sleeping and post it on the blog like I did of Amy! I went into his bedroom lastnight and took a couple of pictures. I hope you don't mind me posting another picture and making my son happy. He will be thrilled to see it on here.
The weather is getting warmer here. Well I haven't actually been outside recently, but I assume it is warmer because the ice is off my windows!!
Amy is working on getting another tooth loose enough to be pulled. I don't think we had one loose tooth last year. This must be the year of the TOOTH!
I said that I would keep you posted about the weight lose, I will also keep you posted on the weight gain. I don't know how, but I gained a pound. I wanted so badly to be able to read my book this weekend, but I won't make it to five pounds by tomorrow. I will keep working at it though. I am going to win this battle!
Joel has dropped his morning nap. We are now down to one nap a day! I really like it this way. He sleeps one long nap instead of two short naps. He is getting so big. Any of you that know me well, know how excited I get when my children are no longer babies. I love watching Joel learn new things and become more independent! Life is good today!!

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

He keeps us on our toes!



Here are some pictures of different things that Joel has done recently. The first one is a picture of Joel stuck in the lid of our kindling box. The next one is him playing in the laundry basket. Emily giving Joel a piggy back ride is the next one. They have so much fun together. Amy is the sleeping child with the hat on. She wore that hat all day and didn't want to take it off lastnight. The last picture is of Joel finishing his breakfast. We thought he was done. I got him out of his highchair and let him go play. I forgot about him until I heard one of the children yell, "Look at Joel!" He was sitting on the floor feeding himself. I guess he wasn't done! I hope that I am not boring you with all these photos. It is just so hard for me not to share them with you.

I have a great diet plan to tell you about. I find it very motivating. I am in the middle of an excellent book series. It is the kind that you just can't put down once you start. Well I have told myself that I can not move on to the next book until I have lost 5 pounds! I have been working on it since last week and I am down 4 1/2 pounds already. I am following Weight Watchers and exercising four days a week. I can't wait to get that last 1/2 pound off, I have the book loaned from the library and just sitting on my counter waiting for me!! I will try to keep you posted. I want to lose a total of 15 pounds.

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

More pictures from yesterday


Lauren and Wyatt (she loves babies)/ Hayden being his cute self

Monday, February 5, 2007

How we survive the cold

This first picture is our window, from inside of the house, covered in snow and ice. It is SO cold here, that the children can not go outside to play! They could get frost bite in a matter of a half an hour. It is probably needless to say, but we are going crazy being inside of the house for so long. I swear the children woke up fighting yesterday morning!! I might have done something to the children that I would have regreted, if the Lord hadn't changed my heart. The children and I had our family Bible time and things just worked its way out to everyone having better attitudes. The next BIG attitude changer was, my next door neighbor, Karen called and invited my children to go up to the Tabernacle to play inside with her boys. There is A LOT of running room at the Tab. They had a blast and so did I. I went up too, just to get out of the house. I really needed to run also. Karen brought up her workout video and we did it while the children ran in six different directions! That day will go down in my memory as one of the most fun days I have had this year. I guess winter can be fun!!
Today was a better day than what yesterday started out being. The children's attitudes were much improved. I guess we really did need to get out of the house for a couple of hours. Thanks Karen for inviting us up to the Tab. Lets do it again real soon! Most of all, thank you Lord for changing the attitudes of this family before we even got outside. We need you more than we need to run!

Sunday, February 4, 2007

Funday

Today was a fun day. We were given tickets to a Notre Dame basketball game. After church, Jeff took Lauren, Emily, and Daniel to the game. They had a great time. I was so proud of Jeff. His team, the Chicago Bears, was playing in the Super Bowl during this basketball game. He chose to make a memory with the children instead of staying home to watch "THE" game. His brother Jimmy taped the game so that Jeff could watch it when he got home. We are watching
it right now. The Bears are losing at the moment.

While Jeff and the older children were gone, Amy and Joel had fun in the tub. I think that they were in there for almost an hour!! Bubbles are so much fun.

Saturday, February 3, 2007

We are back

We didn't actually go anywhere, but I have been too busy to post the last four days. I have alot of to get you caught up on.
Well, Joel is learning sign language. He can now sign please, thank you, more, and done. These four signs come in VERY handy at meal time! All my friends children sign these words, but Joel is our first child to use them. Probably because he had four siblings very determined to make him learn and repeat over and over again. He is so cute when he talks to us!
We got a new computer desk. It is SO nice. Headquarters was selling their "old" furniture at a silent auction. We won the desk for $25.00! It is bigger than our old one and MUCH nicer!!! It is our plan to sell our old one at our garage sale this summer. We figure that we can get $25.00 for it.
I was MADE to drive in the snow yesterday! My dear husband forced me to do it. I was SO angry with him that I wasn't even afraid to drive. It was the neatest thing, I had no fear, only anger! After making me driving for about two minutes Jeff asked, "How are you doing?" I said, "Except for being angry at you, I am fine!" He was so amused at that, that he couldn't stop smiling. Then he asked, "Do you want me to take over now?" That stinker just wanted me to try it!! Well I didn't have him take over. I was actually enjoying not being afraid and I continued to drive us to our destinations. After we were done driving to the bank and the library, Jeff leaned in for a kiss. I wanted to refuse him, but he was so cute smiling back at me, I kissed him and forgave him. Don't tell him, but I was and still am glad that he made me do it! I hope not to ever fear the snow again as much as I have in the past. Maybe this experience was life changing for me!!
Lauren, Emily, and I went to see a play at a local college. We saw the Miracle Worker. It was the story of Helen Keller. They did an excellent job and we LOVED it.
Today was Daniel's first basketball game. It was more fun to watch than I expected. He did a good job.
Our internet has been having trouble. I hope to post more tomorrow, as long as we are able to get online.