What have I done?

I saw this on another blog and thought it looked fun, so I stole it! :-)

You are supposed to bold the ones you have done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language (I'm in the process right now, does that count?)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Totally copied a post from someone else's blog to your own. (Just this one!)

I Elf'ed us!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Poison Control

So the other night, I had to call Poison Control for the first time with child number 4. I've had to call them so much over the last 10 years that it doesn't even phase me anymore when they ask for my name and zip code.

When my oldest was our only there was a span of time that I called them A LOT. I was so scared that there was some type of "Poison Control Quota" and if you called more than the quota Social Services would make a visit. I was certain Blake would be taken away after I had to call about him pouring gasoline all over himself in the same month he drank mouthwash (and two other things I've since forgotten).

Anyway, back to the other night.

I cleaned the kitchen after dinner. I even started the dishwasher and mopped the floor! Ok, Swiffered, but whatever. I forgot to re-lock the cleaner's cabinet. About 15 minutes later, I was in the school room, and I heard that oh, so, familiar sound. That gagging, sputtering, choking sound. I jumped up, hurdled the gate, and saw Luke in the hallway with the remnants of a dishwasher pack*, clearly gagging, and, uh, stuff coming out his mouth.

I realized what it was immediately. I jerked him up and ran to the kitchen, making sure there wasn't any left in his mouth. I started reading the label on the package and calling out orders at the same time "bring me the phone, I need to call poison control", "he needs milk, get me some milk", and "DO NOT INDUCE VOMITING" as he vomits (I'm so glad I mopped the floor!).

He's fine, just gave us a scare. The poison control guy gave me some instructions and things to look for, and then he called me back in 1/2 an hour to make sure Luke was ok.

In related? news, he went to bed great that night and slept until 7 am the next morning. It was the first time Luke has slept through the night since we left California.

Jerry says maybe we should feed him a dishwasher pack every night! He's kidding, right? :-)

*These

The Great Church Hunt, Parts 2 and 3

I'll have to lump Part 2 and Part 3 together, but it's ok because it's the same church.

When we were searching for churches while still in California, this one was the second of two that we really wanted to try.

Our first Sunday there was so much better than the first church we tried. The people were very friendly, and the Children's Church was in a different building and totally kid-approved. The check in for both the kids and the nursery was a little unorganized and took forever, though.

We enjoyed the music (even if it did get a little 7-11* once in a while), but soon it started to go downhill for me. Not very fast downhill, but downhill. A lot of it is petty, and I'm not sure that I want to even type it out. Ok, I will. I do not like when the Pastor and his wife sit/stand/worship on the platform/stage. I think it's tacky, and self-serving. Top that with a Pastor that doesn't really worship and a wife that doesn't either, and it goes beyond tacky. Now I know what some of you are thinking. You're wondering how I know what they were doing if I was worshipping. :-). Well, you see, well, you got me. But they were such an eye-sore. Like a train-wreck from which you couldn't peel your eyes!

Then came announcements, two different offerings, two special songs, and before you knew it, it was noon and he was just beginning to preach (church started at 10:30). I know this happens sometimes, and he was apologizing profusely for the time. The sermon was great, but I just wish he'd had the whole hour or more to preach it instead of rushing through it.

Luke was crying when we picked him up (surprise, surprise), and Blake made like 5 friends (surprise, surprise). We enjoyed it enough to give it another shot.

Yesterday, we tried it again. The timing was much smoother than before, and the songs were not as 7-11'y as before which was nice. Jerry doesn't like his preaching style; I think I could get used to it. We don't like how the nursery pretends to be secured (with a locked door and only one way in and out), but really isn't, because when the door is opened people just run in before it closes, throwing their pagers on the counter. There aren't nearly enough workers for the amount of children or the space (the check in counter typically has nobody working it, allowing all the said people to run through the open door).

I still can't get over the Pastor and his wife being up there during worship. I just don't like it.

We're going to pray about it. I feel like I'm being overly critical about the church, and I probably am, but at the same time I really don't feel like this church is where we belong.

So...The Great Church Hunt continues...



*7 words 11 times,
meaning the same verse or chorus is sung
over and over and over and over again

You wanna tour my house?

Well, this is the best I can do. These are the pictures I took during the chaos of moving in! Well, except for the picture of the outside of the house. I took that this morning.

Please excuse our mess!


This picture is taken with my back to the front door.
That's a screened-in porch back there.

(that's the front door) :-)

Walking in the living room a bit further, you can see the kitchen to the left
(more on that later, of course).

If you take a right at the front door,
there is a hallway that leads to our "Master Suite".

We have a double vanity and more cabinet space than we could ever need.

Don't be jealous :-)
There is a separate shower, but I failed to get a picture of that,
or the walk in closet that is to the right of the tub

If you go back out to the living room, and through the kitchen, to your left is a hallway that leads to the stairs and Luke's room...which is also the playroom

This is the school room.

They meant it to be a formal dining room. We don't need one of those :-)
Looking right through it, that's all the crap in front of the front door.

Upstairs and to the left is Olivia and Rebekah's room.

There is a Jack-n-Jill bathroom upstairs. This is the girls' entrance to it.

Froggies!

Well, hello there Blake!

We're not getting out his door!

After kicking my way through the door to Blake's room,
I was able to take a picture of the living room from the "loft" area.

Oh, look!
There's Jerry using my Dyson!


Going back down the stairs


This is the beautiful window glass in the dining room.

And, my favorite room in the house...the Kitchen!
I don't know what we'll do with all those cabinets, but they sure are nice to have!

The bar overlooking the dining room

I don't know if you can see it, but on the refrigerator is a San Diego flip flop magnet
I bought a few days before we left California.


This is a little nook beside the refrigerator
These are all the pictures we have of the house. I'll take more eventually. Maybe. :-)

It's all about the perspective

I haven't updated in a long while, and I'm not sure I'll be able to catch everyone up. I can blog things as I remember them, and that's all I can promise :-).

We're still on the great search for a church and we're getting discouraged. We wish there was a church closer to us where we feel we belong, but there just isn't. Yesterday Jerry had me googlemap the distance between our house we lived in in Tennessee and our church there. I humored him, certain that it was a 30 minute drive. Maybe even less. Turns out, we lived 32 miles from our church there. Almost a 45 minute drive, because we didn't live close to the interstate. Only 2 or 3 miles shorter than the churches we're talking about here. You know, the drive we're dreading? The drive we did every Sunday and Wednesday in TN didn't seem that long.

Why is that? Perspective.

We lived closer to that church when we got connected and then we moved further away. We didn't mind it because we were already plugged in and had friends there, and my parents were there. This gives us new perspective on the churches here. We're not as discouraged as we were. More on our church hunt in another post.


In other news:

Our house is starting to feel like a home. I've cleaned, I've taught school, Jerry has had normal working days, I've had dinner cooking when gets home, the kids have had normal bedtimes...we have a sense of normalcy! I miss our lives in California, but it is so nice to feel settled again, to relax, to exhale.

The kids are adjusting well, except for Luke. He hasn't slept through the night since we left Cali. Some of it could be the lack of a crib (no we never found the hardware to put it together...more on that later), and some of it could be molars coming in, but I think most of it is the move. He has become so incredibly clingy and has separation anxiety more than any of other 3 did. Probably more than the other 3 combined. We can't put him down! Well, I guess technically we CAN put him down, but the poor baby just cries and cries and cries. He'll cling to my legs and I end up tripping on him, which you know only makes things worse. Things are starting to get easier, but you can tell he doesn't feel totally secure in his surroundings yet.

I joined a homeschool group, and signed the kids up for a Spelling Bee they're having in January. They're really excited about that, my weird kids :-). They invited me to the Christmas party, and I think we'll go.

Now that things have calmed down and life isn't as chaotic, I will keep in better touch with all of you!