:)

CLASSIC, ISN'T IT. HAHAHA

Make-up. Ugh, so much work! These are my two sisters. Brenda and Wendy. Brenda, 1.5 years older than me, may just be the luckiest person I know. She wins everything, or as close as you could get to everything, anyway. Drawings, contests, name it. You couldn't not love both of them. And Wendy is the one who loves Pepsi, fast food, and figuring people out. Fascinating woman. Now, I love my family to pieces. When we get together, there's most likely a game going on at the table 'til the wee hours of the morning. We're a game kind of family. Dominos, Scrabble (which my mother will win about every time), Balderdash, Like it or Lump it, Scategories, love games. Anyway, I had to share this picture. It's one of my favorites! Love you guys. :)

This week in review

Had my scope and dilation on my esophagus yesterday. Afterwards, Harry and I went to Subway and I ate a 6" sub with NO trips to the restroom. Yay! It was still a little difficult to eat, and since then some things have gotten stuck, but I can definately tell a difference! Still probably looking at more surgery, but I'll be able to nourish my baby 'til then! So there's my big fat praise report.

Have company this weekend. Harry's aunt, uncle, and cousin are coming. Guess what I've been doing this week? Uhh, yeah - cleaning. And organizing. And I even cut the dog's hair - it is SOOO funny! Putting it nicely, I did a terrible job. We still have to take the clippers to him, though.

Went through Tiffany's "old clothes". Do you KNOW how many 0-3 month outfits I had?? Enough to put a lot of 29 and another of 30 on eBay this Sunday. And I still kept a ton! ugh, where am I supposed to store this stuff? Maybe a fairy will come while I sleep some night and organize it all for me. :) Anyone have any pulls there? Notice my lack of nouns today?

We are trying to get a bill passed (House File 2658) that will automatically award joint physical placement (each parent has child = time) unless there is burden of proof why it's not in the child's best interest. So today I'm typing up a pamphlet to pass out to the legislators and all those special political people that persuades them to vote YES! Did you know I'm a lobbyist? Is that cool, or what? It's not like picketing. We are actually in the capitol building and call the representatives out one by one - by filling out a piece of paper saying who we are and who we'd like to talk to. Then the door person gives it to the rep, and they come out and talk to us - we tell them about the bill, and they can ask questions, and then we move on to the next rep. Now we'll have a little packet to give them when they come out to talk with us.

Page1 For Iowa's Children (scrabble letter font), Vote YES (big bold green lettering)
Page2 Copy of the bill
Page3 Facts and Myths page about this bill
Page4 Benefits of Shared Placement - each bulleted with their own green smiley face.
Might take 2 pages.
Page5 Conclusion

Pull quotes in there? Not sure. Hope the draft will be done by tomorrow, so we can get them printed and ready by Tuesday for sure. Better get on it....I think I need some coffee....still feeling a little groggy....I should be sitting at the table instead of reclining in bed....

Johari

Pick 5 words to describe me?? This was hard for me to do! I wish "indecisive" were one of the choices!

http://kevan.org/johari?name=Beefy86

Title? How could I choose?!

Laying in bed watching Braveheart. I love this movie....gets ya' a little pumped up! Fighting for the cause! The plot goes something like this: the authority makes rules that should not be. Everyone lives by them. One person stands up and says no. Others follow. He tells them, "You've missed your God given right for something better." Together, they overcome this obstacle. They stick together and come out on top. Now who couldn't learn a little something from Braveheart?

These people were living by the rules thinking it was not a great life to lead, but that's just the way it is. ONE person started the revolution. My question is, what do we compromise and just live with? And honestly, where do you start to change something. Let's start with society. Premarital sex has become so normal, that if someone actually stands up for purity, it's viewed as abnormal. I remember telling certain people that Harry and I were going to wait until we were married - I will never forget the looks on their faces. "Why on Earth would you do that?" was what it looked like. "Test the waters" was the advice I got. Thank God for the Bible!

On a lighter note, we actually went out today! We went to a movie - Failure to Launch. It was a cute movie. Tiffany did very well. Sat and stared at that huge screen for a good hour. :) Then she ate and fell asleep. She did get a little Slo Poke, I confess. Felt good to get out anyway.

And I am going to advertise to scrapbook other people's pictures. Goofy idea? I looked up pricing, and the going rate is about 12 bucks a page. Does that seem low or high to anyone?

Now, for Rice Crispy Bars. Marshmallow Creme, Marshmallows, or something else? I use 1 cup light karo syrup and 1 cup sugar (and peanut butter if I feel like it). Top with chocolate chips - they're great! And I am out of liquid smoke. Looked at Fareway, Hy-Vee, Super Wal-Mart, and Super Target. Any other ideas?? Do you find it sad that I can't post about one topic? What am I supposed to title these? Maybe I should make up a title first like T, then just stick with it. But what would the fun of that be for my wandering brain?

5 Thoughts for the Day

First, I was in the Dollar Tree yesterday, and I was walking down the cleaning isle. As I passed by an elderly couple, the man says "This one should work". The wife replies, "yeah, it'll work - if I work". :) I thought it was just the cutest thing ever.

Second, I found a great new picture to put on my blog profile, but can't figure out how to get it to work. It says enter URL address, and it's on my C drive. A little help from a willing computer geek would be much appreciated. :)

Third, I was shopping yesterday with Natalie, and I'm gonna post this 'cuz I don't think she will. The kids were playing with 2 plastic cups, and pretending to pick strawberries and fill their cups up. Then Mel sounds like she needs a little help with the situation. "He has all the strawberries and he won't give me any." And Robbie just grins a little. It was just too adorable. Then Natalie explained that you can't run out of pretend strawberries, unless you pretend them away. Isn't it funny how someone can be so persuasive and believable? I wonder if I ever think my cup is empty, when really it's overflowing - maybe I just needed to look at it from another angle.

Fourth, I'm going to set up another blog about my medical condition. I searched for achalasia, and came up with a couple new sites - got me thinking - maybe I could be of help to someone else looking for support or answers. I'll work on that next week.

Fifth, goodbye. I have an overload of housework that went from a quiet whisper in my brain to a piercing shrill.

Mmmm, The Schwan's Truck

Okay, so our latest discovery is blackberry juice from the Schwan's truck. It's the BEST! You know how you get nice cold water, and about 3 minutes later, it tastes warm? Well, not our blackberry juice! No, no. It tastes cold a good couple hours later (which is about how long it takes me to drink something!).

We love Schwan's hot dogs - the skinless franks. I don't know what it is about them, but they're the bomb. They come in a box with 5 hot dogs in each pack - not quite sure how many packs there are.....8 maybe?

And the Lemon Freeze Cups. Run out of these constantly. The cherry kind are good, but a little too sweet. Lemon gives you a little refreshing kick, and it's nice and cold, but sweet too. We bought 2 boxes of these last week. 24 in the 2 boxes, and we've gone through 9. Not bad, eh? Why you ask? Cause we've been busy drinking the blackberry juice, I tell 'ya!

The downside of Schwan's is the price. Wowee! You can spend 60 bucks a month if you're not careful! We're sitting at about 30 bucks a month this month.....but thanks to my Aldi trip today, we're sittin' pretty good. Yes, I - Me - bought crab meat for 1.99 today at Aldi. Any good crab recipes? I spent an hour - could have been longer - looking through cookbooks tonight when I could have been doing something productive....like cleaning the mirrors and windows in my house? That would have been productive.

And the last thought of the day: there's a new garage sale thing in Cedar Falls. I've only heard about it, so correct me if I heard wrong. Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. There's a building that will be set up for "garage" sales. Costs $1 for admission into the place, and a certain amount to set your own table up in there. So there's lots of different family sales in one place - now why didn't I think of that??? So I'm going this week. Yes, 2 days. I'm counting down already.....now it's less than 1 1/2 days to be exact.....urr, more exact anyway. Completely excited! :)

Letting kids be kids.

Welcome back, me! Harry has a computer downstairs that he uses, and I use the laptop that stays upstairs (unless I'm printing something). Well, the plug-in on the back of the computer was broken. I had to wiggle the cord until the yellow light came on in the front telling me that it was plugged in. Well, it would flash, go off, stay on, and it was an ordeal for a few weeks. Then he ordered a new plug-in, so he had to take the whole thing apart to get the old plug out - it was stuck. Gets it put back together. Doesn't work. Sits on the counter for two days. Fixes it tonight! Happy wife! :)

We've had Olivia and Darin for a couple days, and I must say, I like the school week better than the weekends. We get to see school work, chat with other parents, do "homework" checks, read books assigned, have a BEDTIME, and they get to play with the neighbor kids 'cause no one does anything special during the week - the kids are all home. :) So the two neighbor kids and one from another home come over. Harry has this car he got for free in the driveway outside.....(sidenote: duh, why do I type "outside"....like it would be inside??).....and the kids have had a great time playing with it. They get in, pretend to drive, crawl in the trunk (which isn't really a "trunk" - more like an extra backseat), and they even found out how to open the t-tops by themselves today. Have you ever let a kid just play in a car and let them push whatever buttons they want? Or pretend to drive....push the gas and not worry about flooding the thing? And how about to sit on the hood and hang out with your friends? They have had the BEST time this week playing with this cruddy car. Found some old hot chocolate packets in the back, and pretended to have a great party. Then found money, which found their pockets, which found smiles on their faces, which found suspicious parents. One of those....."uh oh, I don't hear him. What is he into?" I'm sure you know the kind.

So the neighbor (father of the 2) came home and saw them crawling all over this car, and yelled at them to come in the house "right now!". Oops, hope they're not in trouble. We told 'em to. No, really - we started it!!! We don't know them very well, but I'm sure to get home and see a bunch of kids having the time of their life with this car isn't a calming moment, especially if you think it's a usable car that shouldn't be for playing. Guess we'll see if our kids ever get to play with them again. lol, oops. The irresponsible people that we are, and all. What kind of parents would let their kids play in a car unsupervised? Certainly not us!

They were distracted for about 10 minutes all afternoon when they took shovels and found what was left of the snow, and scooped it out all over the driveway. Snow on grass? Nahh, more fun this way. My point is, why not let kids be kids? Drive over the snow - big deal. Go ahead, climb on a car. Play with your food. Wear a dress to bed. Wear pajamas all day. Have a toothpick race when it's raining! Sit down looking at each other and make all the silly faces you can think to make until someone runs out of ideas. Then make silly noises. Let them sit on your lap and turn the steering wheel into the driveway when you get home from somewhere. Let them be kids! It annoys me when people won't let their kids be silly in Wal-Mart because someone might be watching. Let them put the rubber snake up to their ear and pretend it's growing out from their head - who cares? Laugh with them. Be silly with them. Be kids with them. Watch a cartoon together - all of it. Eat cake for breakfast on their birthday. Let them play with a toy in the cart until you get to the checkout line - then put it back. :) I wasn't so free with daycare kids - they were all different ages, and you never know how they respond to a little more-than-usual slack in the rope. I knew with 2 of them, and we had a good time most of the time. They knew when it was time to get serious, but we laughed until then. Tell the blogger to shut her trap. Hahaaaahaha Wow, I thought I had a point 'til now.....looking pretty pointless and I don't remember where I was going with this. I could delete the whole paragraph, or just make you suffer through it. Suffer! Like I always say, you can't help but read my blabbering......I feel kinda' bad for you.