Johnsons' Journey

Well, what do you know… I am now 39 years old… Only one year left until the dreaded FOUR-OH … OMWord, I so don’t want to turn 40. I really, really, really, really, really, really don’t want to turn 40. It makes my stomach upset just to think about it. *lol*

Despite the fact that I am teetering on the top of the hill, I still managed to have a good weekend.

On Saturday we of course went to the bowling alley for the boys’ league. It was a position round, and their team won 2 out of the 3 games… They could have won all three, but their team-mate, Marshall, was having a REALLY had day. On the game they lost, Marshall only got a 50 (his average is 89). If he had played as well as he normally does, they for sure would have won all three.

Jared and Josh, on the other hand, both bowled really well. I think Jared is out of his slump, much to his happiness. In fact, while he still didn’t beat his top game of 170, he managed to beat his top series (the total of all 3 games together). His top series was 342, but on Saturday he bowled a 390… He also got his first turkey (3 strikes in a row), but sadly it was during practice, so it didn’t count. *lol* Poor Jared! … He almost got a hambone (4 strikes in a row), but he only got 9 down on the 4th one… One pin shy. *lol*

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… Mainly because I have no idea why I am even bothering posting. … Other than lots of homeschool lessons, there is nothing of interest going on in the Johnson household. Very boring stuff.

The kids have, once again, asked for an extra week of vacation (for Christmas break), so they are busy doing extra work so that they can earn it… But instead of taking the extra week before the scheduled week, they want to take it after Christmas… That’s because they want more time to enjoy their Christmas presents before going back to school. *lol* So we will be doing extra work through next Friday, and then taking 3 weeks off. We won’t be back to school until January 11th… Jared’s excited that his birthday will be the last day of vacation.

Joe may be taking the girls on a “date” on Friday… Depending on the weather. (There is a possibility of freezing rain, and if that happens, they won’t go… So the girls don’t know yet, just in case.)… Since Joe took the boys camping in September, he’s been promising the girls that he will take them to the movies. Well the new Disney Princess movie (Princess and the Frog, or something like that) comes out tomorrow, and the girls would LOVE to see that… He would take them while the boys and I were at the bowling alley for cosmic bowl… I hope it works out, for the girls’ sake.

Well, I guess I better get back to the kids… They are working on their Bible lessons right now.

And quiet prevailed… For 23 hours.

I had the house to myself for 23 hours, and it was so nice! … I needed to wrap the kids’ Christmas presents, so Joe took the kids over to his parents’ house to spend the night. I guess there was a college football game on TV on Thursday night between the Oregon Beavers and the Oregon Ducks, to see which team would play in some sort of bowl thingy. Jim (Joe’s Dad) had wanted Joe to watch the game with him, so Joe decided to go and just crash there until he went to work (he leaves the house at 2:30-ish in the morning).

So anyway, they left at around 4 pm on Thursday, and I had a nice, quiet evening all to myself. I mainly just snuggled under a quilt and watched some movies… Then on Friday morning I spent aprox. 3 hours wrapping presents… Yes, I am a SLOW wrapper. *lol* … Normally I have the kids stay in their rooms while I wrap, but that drives them batty after a while (since it takes me SO LONG to wrap them *lol*). This was much less painful for them.

On his way home from work yesterday, Joe stopped by his parents’ house to pick the girls up and bring them home… Jim and Elvina wanted the boys to stay one more night so that they could take them to the high school basketball game (which bores the girls, so they never go). Jim and Elvina are going to bring the boys to the bowling alley this morning, in time for their league. It will be nice to see them.

Since we were boy-free last night (not counting Daddy), the girls and I snuggled up and watched a few episodes of “H2O – Just Add Water”, which the kids love (OK, I admit it, I love that teeny-bopper show too *lol*). Gotta love a mermaid flick, right?

Not much else going on… I’ve been doing some scrapping, but I haven’t loaded them onto Flickr yet. I may try to do that before we head to the bowling alley… Joe is treating us girls to breakfast there, before the boys bowl in their league.

Well, I should run… But before I go, just wanted to give a quick shout out for faucet… I would like to get a new one for the kitchen. One that has one of those hose things attached. I used to have one in the Portland house, and I miss it!

Train Quilt Panel

When I went to get the fabric for the quilt I am making for my friend’s baby, I saw this panel and decided to use that, instead of making a “real” quilt… I just couldn’t resist that train! It’s soooo cute! … Although I think I annoyed the fabric lady at Walmart. You see, it is technically already quilted with a thin batting in-between and another train fabric on the back… But I am going to add a thicker batting, with my own fabric for the back. I like to do this so I can add the ribbon “tags” around the outside of the quilt… Babies love to play with the tags!… Plus, babies need a thicker snuggle blanket than what they did.

Anyway, I cut my ribbons into small strips and started pinning them around the panel, getting ready to sew the tags on with the new batting, when I noticed it…

There is a hole, about the size of a dime, in the middle of the bottom train.

Talk about annoying!

So now I am going to have to take the panel back to Walmart and exchange it for another one… Let’s hope they don’t think I’m the one who put the hole in it!… You do think they will let me exchange it, right? (Please say yes!)

So, there goes my plans to get the quilt done this weekend. *sigh* … Better get to Walmart soon!

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We had a first tonight… Jared babysat his brother and sisters for the first time, while Joe and I went shopping at Walmart… I know, I know… He’s not 12 years old yet, and I guess if we were good parents, we wouldn’t have left them yet… But Jared is almost 12, and to be honest, he’s so responsible that we would have trusted him to babysit for a long time now… Jared is like John Boy on the Waltons. He tends to want to “take care” of the girls, and makes sure everyone is safe and following the rules when they are out playing, or are with Joe’s parents, etc.

Anyway, they all did great. Josh (who was more like a co-babysitter) made them all dinner… Something that Josh LOVES to do. *lol* … By the time we got home the house, as well as the kitchen, was spotless. Jared cleaned the kitchen, and the girls had picked up their doll mess from the living room. Their rooms were clean too.

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Alicia, our little toothless wonder!

On Thursday we took the kids back to the pool… While we were in route, we decided to call Debbie (Joe’s sister) and invite them to come join us, and they excepted (They live just a couple minutes from the aquatic center).

The kids were thrilled to have their cousins there to swim with, and all 6 of them had a great time… I don’t think they were ready to leave at 5 pm when all the kids started coming for their lessons.

It was nice for me too, because I got someone to talk to while Joe and the kids swam. *lol* Debbie and I sat on the bleachers and chatted while we watched them swim.

At 5 pm we bid them goodbye, and then buckled the kids into the Durango… We were all getting hungry, and trying to decided what to make for dinner. Both Joe and I decided that we would just eat out, because we hadn’t pulled anything out for dinner, and everyone was pretty hungry. We also decided just to grab something fast and take it home to eat it.

Now there isn’t much to choose from in Molalla, for fast food. You either have McDonald’s or Subway. Well, not a one of us wanted the golden arches, so Subway was decided and we headed over there… When we pulled into the parking lot, who should be there but Debbie and the kids! (Scott hadn’t come to the pool because he had still been at work when they left.) The kids all thought that was cool, and while I stayed in the car, they all went in with Joe to say hi to Jamie and Jacob while Joe got our dinner.

As you know, I spent the entire day on Friday painting Josh’s room, then I fell into bed exhausted by 9 pm…

Josh loves his wolf border!

On Saturday I got the wallpaper trim up in Josh’s room… I think it turned out pretty nice! I can tell that Josh loves it, if him kissing the wallpaper trim is any indication!

After Joe got home and I BBQd some chicken, potatoes, and corn-on-the-cobb for a late lunch, Joe and I got Josh’s furniture put back in his room. After the heavy stuff was in the room, Joe headed to the bed and his TV set, and Josh and I started getting his toys and things organized and put in his room… We only got around half of it done, because I was quickly getting out of the mood. *lol* … I convinced him that it would be a good time to settle in with a movie (by then it was around 8:30), and I ended up going to bed early on Saturday as well.

I woke up early on Mother’s Day, and turned on iTunes and vegged in front of an episode of “In Plain Sight” while waiting for the kids to wake up… Joe was at work, though he did send me a “Happy Mother’s Day” text.

After all the kids were awake, Josh and I got the rest of his things put away in his bedroom… I don’t have any pictures yet, because we haven’t had a chance to hang his pictures/posters yet… But as soon as we do (Joe always helps with that), I will be sure to take some and post them… I also need to make the valance for his window, and runners for the dresser and the bedstand we want to buy him (his old side table lost a leg *lol*).

Joe got off work at 8 am (he requested to get off early), and he went to Wal*Mart to pick up a few groceries (and a last minute Mother’s Day gift *lol*)… When we were last at Wal*Mart, I had pointed out a couple DVDs on the $5 rack that I wouldn’t mind having (Ever After and Aquamarine), so he picked those up along with Bedtime Stories for the kids to give me as a gift… I think he grabbed that one because he’s a big Adam Sandler fan. *lol* … But I did want to see that one too.

Debbie, Alicia, Amanda, and Jamie

At around noon we packed up the Durango and headed to Feyrer Park (a campground which is 5 miles from the house). We met Scott, Debbie, and the kids there for a Mother’s Day BBQ. We had a really nice time, just chatting and relaxing while the kids played to their hearts’ content.

You can tell that the kids are all growing up… It used to be that the 6 of them would spend a majority of their time on the playground equipment, but not anymore… Now only Alicia and Amanda are interested, while the boys and the twins would rather do things like volleyball… It’s kind of sad to see them leaving the joys of childhood behind… *sigh*

After a couple hours we put everything away in the SUVs and walked down to the Molalla River. We stayed there for a while, and let the kids play along the river bank, while we talked some more… We headed home at around 4:15.

There should be 5 candles. *lol*

Sunday was also Cuddles’ 5th birthday … It doesn’t seem possible that we’ve had her for almost 5 years now (we got her when she was 6 weeks old)! … As per tradition, we had to celebrate her birthday with a can of soft cat food and a singing of Happy Birthday. *lol* … The kids would be very upset if we forgot to celebrate her birthday… In fact, they had been telling her “Happy Birthday” all day long.

And yes, Buddy got a can of soft food too.

So far, Buddy hasn’t had anymore “spraying issues”, but we aren’t taking any chances. We’ve moved his “snip-snip” appointment from the 23rd to this coming Saturday… That will give us 2 weeks of observation before our vacation, to see if we’ve nipped the problem in the bud… Or he may be spending the week in the bathroom, which I really don’t want to do, but I will if we have to.

For now, he’s being watched All. The. Time… At all times one of the kids is on “Buddy Duty”, and if we’re all too busy to watch him, he goes in the kennel.

Here’s praying this ends soon!

In other (bad) news, we’re having troubles with the Durango… For a while now it’s been making some strange noises… Since we’ll be pulling the trailer quite a ways on our vacation, Joe wanted to get it looked at before we headed out, so last night he took it to a place in town. They messed around and told him it was his transmission. I guess where he took it don’t do transmissions or something, so they suggested a place in Sandy… When Joe went to leave Eriksons, the Durango started making a terrible noise… To make a long story short, the people from Canby had to have the Durango towed to their shop. *sigh*

What really sucks is that it’s going to cost $500 ALONE, just to have them take the transmission out and see what’s wrong. Plus we’ll have the cost of the repair on top of that. *sigh* … If our vacation wasn’t already reserved and paid for, we probably wouldn’t (shouldn’t) go… Mainly because the money for the car repair has to come out of our line of credit… It feels wrong to be going on vacation when we can’t afford to fix the car.

BUT… We haven’t had a “real” vacation since before the kids were born. We’ve gone on a lot of camping trips (4 days at the most, but usually just weekend trips), but this is the first time we’ll be gone for an entire week, and we had lots of things planned (which I will get into AFTER we come home, the internet being what it is)… The kids are REALLY looking forward to it, and we feel like we can’t cancel now… *sigh*

Pontiac Grand Am

Anyway, since our only vehicle got towed, Joe had to rent a car from Ericksons… I guess they were out of the $25 a night cheap cars, so Joe ended up with a red Pontiac Grand Am (for $35 a night)… When Joe got home the kids ran to the door to see what car Daddy had rented, and Amanda came back to me with a snicker in her voice…

“Daddy bought a girl’s car!”

Snicker

Today I feel Content…
Reading: “With Wings as Eagles” by Elaine Schulte
It was Mostly Sunny today, in the upper 80s, it is currently 82º

Conversation of the day:
Julie: “I watched some episodes of Dr. Quinn without you today. I figured that you usually sleep through them anyway, so it wouldn’t matter.”
Joe: “That’s because I get up so darn early”
Jared: “Then why do you fall asleep during them on Saturday?”

Amanda was a bit on the cranky side tonight, and she felt a little hot, so I took her temperature. The poor little angel has a temperature of 101.8. So I gave her some Tylenol, and stripped her down to her diaper. She doesn’t have any other symptoms, and she was only a little cranky, so I’m not sure what’s up… Her appetite was a little down though too. I hope the Tylenol brings the fever down. (She’s in bed for the night now.)

Not long after I had given Amanda her Tylenol, we heard Josh and Alicia start screaming bloody murder outside. We were about to go see what was up when Jared came tearing into the house and told us that Josh had been stung by a bee. Alicia must have been having “sympathy symptoms” because she was screaming louder than Josh was. So I got the stinger out, and his hand cleaned up while Joe made a mixture out of baking powder and water. I put that on his finger, and then wrapped some gauze around it to keep the stuff on it. He seems better now, and just came out of bed to ask me to take the gauze off. I also gave him Tylenol for the pain… Bee stings can hurt!

I got Josh’s quilt done today. Boy was I psyched to get it done, as I couldn’t wait to scrapbook… The only problem is that now Alicia keeps asking me when I am going to make her one. *sighs*… Of course, she’s going to have to wait a little. We can’t afford the fabric right now, as it costs $40.00 to $50.00 to make a twin sized quilt. If we didn’t buy the fancy fabric, it could be done cheaper. But I want to but the Disney Princess fabric, which is 3-something a yard, which is what the fabric for the boy’s quilts cost.

Here are some pictures that I took before it was done:

As soon as I got the quilt done, I got my scrapbooking stuff back out, and spent a couple hours scrapping today. As soon as I am done posting, I am going to get right back at it too! Yay! Right now I am working on October 25 (YIKES! Am I behind, or what?!) of last year. I am hoping to get into November tonight, at least up until Josh’s birthday pictures. (His birthday is November 10) I am going to need to print some more graphics soon, but I am getting low on ink. That’s a bad thing!!!

We watched “Flipper” during dinner last night. The kids were so excited when they found out we had a new dolphin movie to watch. They were mesmerized from start to finish, as was I. It was a great movie. We watched it during dinner, and the kids were sitting in their booster seats in front of the TV. There was this one part where this hammer-head shark was after the kid, Sandy. Then the pod of dolphins came to Sandy’s rescue, and were hitting the shark with their snouts. Well the shark was making these loud screaming noises, and Jared says, “The shark screams so loud, I can feel it with my poofter!”… Oh my gosh, I was laughing so hard! There must have been vibrations coming through the floor.

Then last night, after the kids and Joe were in bed, I watched “Two Weeks Notice”. Now that was a darn good movie!!!! I’m going to have to watch it again very, very soon! What I need to do is get together with my SIL to watch all these awesome chick flicks with. Now that would be too much fun!

Well, I am itching to get to my scrapbooking. Have a great night!

Today I feel Content…
Reading: “With Wings as Eagles” by Elaine Schulte
It was Mostly Sunny today, with a high of 76º, it is currently 71º

A couple months ago I received a letter from Columbia House DVD (Where I have an account). They said that they wanted to delete my old account, and give me a new one. With that I got 5 DVDs for 49 cents each, with free shipping. Cool huh? (Must have been because I hadn’t ordered anything in a while, and they wanted to see some action from me???) Anyway, the DVDs came today. For the kids I got “Flipper” and “Ice Age”, for Joe I got “Anger Management” and “Analyze That” (Not realizing that ‘Analyze This’ came first, and we haven’t seen that one either.). For myself I got the movie, “Maid in Manhattan”… I also got “Two Weeks Notice” for 1/2 off….

Anyway, after getting the kids to bed, starting the laundry and cleaning the kitchen, I popped me some popcorn and watched “Maid in Manhattan” this evening. Now that was a darn good movie!

Hmmm… Anything else new and exciting going on in the Johnson household? I worked on Josh’s quilt for a good part of the day. I have it completely tied now, and have machine sewed on the border. Now I am hand stitching around the back of the border to finish it up. Josh is VERY ready for me to have it done. Then I am going to give the sewing machine a bit of a vacation, and get my scrapbooking stuff out…. But first things first, it’s laundry day tomorrow. *sighs*

The kids didn’t do too much today. They did watch “The Cat in the Hat” one more time, since Joe has to return the rented DVDs tomorrow on his way to work. They just love that movie. We’re going to have to buy it for them sometime in the future.

For the most part they played in the boy’s bedroom. The cat kept getting at the quilt, and I was afraid that she would shred the lining. So I told them to put Cuddles in their bedroom. Well, guess they can’t be without the kitty, so they went into the room with her and shut the door. But they seemed to have fun anyway… At least I heard no arguments behind the closed door, and I did hear quite a few giggles.

Not too much else going on… It’s really been a quiet day. Those days are nice once in a while, don’t ya think?

Today I feel Content…
Reading: “With Wings as Eagles” by Elaine Schulte
It was Mostly Sunny today, in the mid 80s, it is currently 64º

Conversation of the day:
(Joe was trying to get Josh to tell him whether he wanted pizza rolls or a sandwich for lunch…)
Josh: “I want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”
Joe: “So you want a sandwich, and not pizza rolls?”
Josh: “No, I want pizza rolls!”
Joe: “So, now you want pizza rolls?”
Josh: “No, a sandwich.”
Me: “Josh, why don’t you just eat what we give you?”
Josh: “O.K. Mommy.”
Joe: “Josh, why don’t you ever say that to me?”
Josh: “Because, you’re not a Mommy.”

If you’re looking for a recommendation to watch this movie, you won’t get it from me. Oh, don’t get me wrong, parts of it were OK… And if they had edited out a few of the scenes, it might have been a decent movie… But there were some NASTY, nude (porno like) scenes, that were so uncalled for. Not to mention the fact that there were like a bazillion different story lines going on that it took me almost an hour to get them all figured out… One I never did figure out, because those were the nude couple, and I fast forwarded through those. All I know about that couple, was that they got married in the end…. This is a movie that Joe rented me the other day, when he rented “Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen”. He said that he didn’t even read the back, he just thought it looked like a movie I would like. And I had never heard of it before…. Think I’ll stick with Disney movies!

In their new clothes

Didn’t do too much today. I did some housework… Cleaned the bathroom, mopped the floors, vacuumed, cleaned the kitchen. Then I got my sewing machine humming. I had some fabric left over from the boy’s quilts. So I made them both a pair of shorts that will match their quilts. Also, yesterday at Wal*Mart I bought them plain white shirts, and I cut out a picture off the fabric and embroidered it onto the shirt. Jared’s shirt has an Orca on it, and Josh’s has an Elephant. So the shirts now match the new shorts. The boys were SO EXCITED! Jared actually did a happy dance over it! Plus, the other day I had made Alicia a pair of shorts out of some leftover Minnie-Mouse fabric (That I had used to make a quilt for my niece Melody), so I bought her a white shirt too, and embroidered a Minnie Mouse onto the front of that shirt, to match her shorts.

I have some leftover Veggie Tales fabric (That I used to make a quilt for my nephew Ryan), that I might use to make a little dress for Amanda. But first I have to finish Josh’s quilt. He’s just DYING to have it on his bed.

Since I am making these new quilts for the boys, I had wanted to pack away their old baby quilts. I made them each one, and my Aunt Patricia made them one too. Jared’s especially are about to fall apart, and Josh’s are getting a little worn too. I thought it would be nice to try and preserve what’s left of them. But these boys won’t hear nothing of it. They insist that they need their “snuggle blankets” on their beds, and were almost in tears over the thought of them getting packed away. So, I couldn’t break their little hearts. I just hope Jared’s don’t dissolve!

Since we did our hot dog roast on Friday, and yesterday we were out all afternoon, and stayed late at Joe’s parent’s house, Amanda has had a couple late nights. I guess today she decided to make up for lost time. She got up a little later than usual, at about 7 a.m.. Then by 9, she was in need of a nap already (She usually goes down between 10 and 11). Finally I went and woke her up at 1:15!!!! She had been asleep over 4 hours! That’s one tired baby. Then she went down again at 4 p.m., and we woke her up at 6 p.m. for dinner. Then she was back in bed for the night at 8:15. Poor little sleepy baby girl!

I am seriously working on getting her off the bottle. I mixed a pitcher of formula, and have it in the fridge. When she wakes up in the morning (for the next couple of weeks) I’ll give her a bottle. (She tends to be a little cranky until her morning bottle! … Guess that’s her morning cup of coffee! ) Then, for the rest of the day, she gets her formula in a sippy cup. She’s doing well, just has to get over her laziness of not wanting to hold it herself. She can do it, she would just rather us do it for her. (Takes after Josh!) And I was happy to see that she’ll take it cold. So we’ll have no troubles with her taking cold milk, when she switches next month. With Jared we had to warm the milk in the microwave for maybe over a month. It’s so much easier when they’ll take it cold.

I’ve also taken her pretty much off baby food. She never really liked it much anyway. She’s much happier feeding herself finger food and some table foods. I have 3 more jars of baby food I need to give her, then she’ll be done with that.

I can’t believe that in less than a month she’ll be a year old. It’s so depressing actually. I’m not ready for her to be a year old already. I still want her to be an infant. Why, oh why, do they have to grow so quickly?

Alicia was so funny today. She wanted me to do something, but I couldn’t figure out what she wanted. (and neither could Joe) So after a few frustrating moments, with her getting upset that I wouldn’t do whatever it was that she wanted me to do, I told her I would do “it” later because I was busy. (Working on Josh’s quilt) Well, she goes into her emotional girl state, and runs off into the dining room crying, and says, “Mommy says she’s busy!”… It was so funny, both Joe and I were dying… And we never did figure out what she wanted. (Poor little Princess!)

She’s also got this new thing she does. Whenever she’s in trouble, she’ll say (Usually while crying), “I like you Mommy!”… Which usually gets a smile out of me, which is what she wants. But if she’s done something that’s really irritated with me, and I don’t smile, she’ll repeat, “Mommy, I said I like you!”… You know how hard it is to discipline her???? She is so cute…. But I need to be firm with her, because of all the kids, she’s the one that’s brave enough to try things. She’s such a sweet little angel though, for the most part.

Well, seeing as it’s actually Monday now, and I still need to make Joe’s lunch for tomorrow, I guess I’ll let you go for now. I hope you’re having a great week so far.

Today I feel Dandy
Reading: “With Wings as Eagles” by Elaine Schulte
It was fair today, and was in the upper 80’s

Question of the day:
Jared: “Mommy, what kind of college do you have to go to, to be a cashier?”

Sounds like the name of a blog doesn’t it? Well, this movie was just released, and Joe rented it for me this evening…. Well, actually what happened, was that while at Wal*Mart today I saw it there, and thought it sounded like a cute movie. But seeing as Joe had bought himself a portable CD player, I was too chicken to ask if we could buy it *sheepish grin*. I threw a couple hints, but Joe NEVER catches those (don’t know why I bother). So later this evening I asked Joe if he didn’t mind renting it, as I was in the mood to watch it tonight. Then I straight out told him that I had seen it at Wal*Mart, and had thrown a couple hints. So when he asked if I really wanted to watch it, I said yes. Then I decided to throw out one more hint and said, “It’s actually on sale this week, for $15.00?…. Well, once again, he didn’t get the hint… He rented the movie! *sighs*… Oh well, it was cute movie, and I like Lindsey Lohan.

We’ve been looking at those outdoor fire-pits for most of the spring and summer, and have been wanting to get one. But the ones we liked were always so expensive. I really didn’t want to get one of the ones that also worked as a BBQ… We don’t need another BBQ, we already have a nice one. Well, at Wal*Mart we happed to find this one:

It was on clearance for $40.00!!! So we bought it… Couldn’t pass up a deal like that one. I looked online, and it turns out that the original price is $118.88!! So we got quite the deal indeed! So we have plans for a wiener roast and s’mores on Friday…. On our new patio no less! Joe even said that he might sleep out in the tent trailer with the three oldest kids. They’ll love that.

Did some sewing today. I used up the last Dolphin square I had left from Jared’s quilt and made him a little throw pillow (which he loved). But I have to admit, that last seem always bugs me. Once the seem is done, (and the pillow completed) there is no way you can zig-zag the inner seem. So I have nightmares (OK, not really) about the fabric fraying, and the pillow becoming ruined… *sighs*… I guess I am the middle-aged zig-zag queen…

… And did you know that the letter “Z” is the letter of the day? Josh informed me of that numerous times. He also informed me that the words, “Zip”, “Zebra” and “Zoo” all start with the letter “Z”… Which is the letter of the day!

Last night Joe washed and waxed the van. And when he does wash the van, he always uses dish soap to do so. Well, Joe is pretty good at leaving stuff lying around, and this morning I saw the dish soap sitting on a bucket in the back yard. (Yes, I am going somewhere with this.)

Today, since it was supposed to be hot, Joe filled up the pool for the kids before we left for Wal*Mart. When we got home, Joe got involved playing with his new portable CD player (He also bought some silly adapter, that you can use in your cassette player, to be able to listen to CD’s in the van). Well, the kids were begging to play in the pool, so I got them in their swim clothes, put some suntan lotion on them, and sent them on their way. I stayed inside to feed Amanda. Well, Alicia discovered the dish soap that Daddy left lying around….. Let’s just say that I bet that was the coldest bubble bath the kids have ever had…

Now that Amanda is getting older, she is starting to develop her little attitude. When she gets mad about something, she’ll throw her upper body back, and then kick her feet a couple times (together like) and just wail. Well, I don’t wish to have a temper tantrum throwing child, so I am nipping that in the bud right now! So I tell her “No!” very firmly, and then tonight (for the first time) it got followed by a swat on her cute little backside. The attitude stopped instantly, and she dissolved into tears. So then I cuddled her. I hated having to do it, but I just can’t do tantrums…. I used to baby-sit the tantrum throwing king, and I just can’t do it anymore… I’ve been lucky though. Jared threw a few from the time he was 20 months, to about 23 months. Then one at age four, that he regretted! Josh has thrown maybe one or two in his whole 4 1/2 years, and Alicia has only thrown one in her 2 1/2 years. You just have to be firm with them from the beginning, so they won’t get worse later.

It’s only 3 weeks until Jared’s surgery. He’s still a little scared over the thought of getting put to sleep. (He just hated the feeling he had when he woke up after his MRI) But the silly little man is actually excited that he gets to spend the night in the hospital. I also think he’s relishing the thought of all the attention he knows he’s going to receive after it. I have already told him that since he has to lie down a lot for the first week (to prevent headaches, nausea and dizziness) that I am going to set him up a bed on the couch, and he gets to watch movies a lot. He’ll be thrilled that Mommy is going to be waiting on his hand and foot! But how can I not???? My six year old has to have surgery. It’s going to be hard to see him in pain afterward, and not be able to do anything about it… Other than the pain medication.

We bought a few stocking stuffers at Wal*Mart today (yes, we have already started shopping for Christmas. With 4 kids, and numerous nieces and nephews, we have to start early). I found one of those little license plates for kids bikes that said, “Princess” on it, so I had to grab it for Alicia’s stocking. (I also saw one that said “Daddy’s Girl” that I might get for Amanda) Then I saw some Spiderman super balls (the bigger kind) that I thought would be good for the boys, and some Spiderman electric toothbrushes. So I sent Joe back to get those, while I distracted the kids with other things (Like taking Josh to the bathroom! ).

Today, while driving to Wal*Mart (does everything revolve around Wal*Mart today? ) Jared was thrilled to see a bumper sticker that said, “Jesus Died For Me and You”. He says, “They must believe in Jesus, like we do!” It was so touching to see how very excited he was over that sticker. I understand how he feels too… Have you ever noticed, as soon as you hear that someone else is a believer, you instantly feel a bond with that person. It’s like you’re kindred spirits or something. Well, you kind of are… You’re brothers and sisters in Christ.

Well, I think I’ll head to bed. Have a great night!