Happy Birthday to ME!

Today is my birthday. I am 29…again. We’re not doing much special because we spent all our $ in Colorado.

D and I are going out to eat tonight, and then on Friday we’re going to see the Bourne Ultimatum. I am quite fond of Jason Bourne. He’s bad, or cool, or fat, or whatever those words translate too in today’s popular culture. (Hummm, am I showing my 29+ age here?)

I have to admit, I’m a bit tired of birthdays when mine comes around. 4 out of the 6 of us have birthdays within 5 weeks of each other, with D’s being only 4 weeks after that. A is the only one who gets her own birthday in March. By the time mine rolls around I’m just flat tired of birthdays.

However, I’m happy to not make dinner and eat cake. I’m always up for cake. Especially chocolate cake.

D always takes our kids out to buy me gifts. He lets them pick what they want. Last year I got some orange and royal blue fingernail polish. I always love to see what the kids pick out for me. They make me smile.

I’ll let you know what my creative little ones picked this time.

Ahh, and by the way, there will be no photo collage of my growing up years. I do have some pride left.

The Story of the Maniacal Double Tow-er.

We had just started our journey northwest to the land of cooler weather and smaller mosquitoes. Anticipation filled the air. The entire family was speaking nicely to each other and happily handing things over the seats to each other with a smile and a ‘thank you’.

The possibilities were endless; would we see deer, would we happen upon a bear, would D get Tricia to drive while towing the RV? Many unanswered questions loomed.

The drive through west Texas seemed endless, I am sure that is where the author of the song ‘don’t fence me in’ was standing as he penned the famous words ‘give me land lots of land with the starry skies above…don’t fence me in’. I heard it said while we were near Amarillo, ‘nowhere can you look farther and see less than in the Panhandle’ I have to tell you, there is some serious truth to that statement.

As we drove on and on and on we began to grow numb to the speed and traffic. There were many, like us, towing RV’s and heading north to the land of mountain breezes, and cold, fast flowing streams. We got used to seeing those with diesel trucks fly past us and our little V8 engine.

We began to notice a rare breed of RV’er; The Double Tow-er. These are the ones brave enough to try to tow two things at once. The set up was like this; one huge diesel truck pulling a 5th wheel, pulling another trailer, often a boat trailer or a trailer carrying 4 wheelers or motorbikes.



It was just such a set up we came across outside of Amarillo. We were in a turn in the highway where there was a bit of a dip as well. We were on the inside lane passing the double tow-er when he began to loose control of his rig. He first swung to the outside, but, as any good tow-er knows, what goes out must come in. As soon as D saw him sway to the outside he hit his brakes. But we did not have enough clearance. As he swung wildly back to the inside, D hit the breaks as hard as he could while swerving into the shoulder to avoid being hit by what has become known as The Maniacal Double Tow-er.

He then realized that if he went too much into the shoulder we would flip. There was very little shoulder before the long slide to the bottom of the ditch.

As D tried to steady our rig on the shoulder, the Maniacal Double Tow-er swung passed our bumper missing us by inches.

Needless to say, everyone in the car was screaming, and D was white.

Once the vehicles and hearts of those contained therein were back to normal, we began to pass the Maniacal Double Tow-er. He had slowed considerably, and had both hands on the wheel looking straight ahead. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man look more afraid…except maybe D.

Interestingly enough, D never once during the entire trip, asked me to drive.

What is the moral of this little tale? Beware The Maniacal Double Tow-er!

We’re Baaaack!

We had a great time on our Colorado trip. I have hundreds of photos but I will spare you all of them. Many are of the scenery. When you live in flat TX, the very idea of things sticking miles up out of the ground is just shocking. Thus the many, many photos.


Here are my kids, shortly after we got in the car for the first time. Everyone was so excited. They all had their own headphones and tape/CD players and they listened to several books on the way.


This is what it looked like on our way out of Dallas. Typical; and it was only 3 in the afternoon.

Here are a few of my favorite shots. Some I took and some G took. He is becoming quite the photographer.

This is the quintessential family vacation shot.






We watched this storm come over the mountain, it was truly breathtaking. We were camped at the base of the mountain.


This is the view from the top of Raton Pass. G took this shot.


This is where we stopped and had a picnic after we went over Raton Pass.


This was our view while we picnicked.


THis is a photo G took at the Great Sand Dunes. What a creative shot. The underwater stream had bubbled up at the base of the dunes. It was really cool.


This is the view from one of our campsites. Yes, my friends, that is Pike's Peak. And Yes, I did climb to the top...in my car, but does it count? Because I was totally out of breath when I got to the top, even though the van did all the work.

What was I doing all this time? That is me in the passenger seat with the map. I was the navigator. We all had walkie-talkies, and I would tell everyone where to go. Why they trusted me with this job I’ll never know. We didn’t get lost much or drive off a cliff so I guess I did okay.


Here is a photo of the kids on the way home. Same kids but now they’re very tired and DIRTY.



And I’ll leave you with this last photo. This is what happens when you forget to empty your coffee pot and then leave it unattended for 10 days.

Yummy!

He's been set free!

The boy has been released from his wire prison!

The Dr. wanted to leave them on for another two weeks but we begged, cajoled, whined and cried, and finally he relented.

He told us we need to keep B on a soft food/no chewing diet for the next two weeks. Then he made us promise…twice, and then sign in blood.

The first thing B did was go brush his teeth; I don’t think he’s ever been happier to brush his teeth in his life. I don’t think he’ll ever take brushing his teeth for granted again.

Then he ate pudding, a lot of it, then yawned, and then yelled at his sister.

Ahh, all is right with the world again.

We leave for Colorado in 2 hours. YIKES! I must now get off the internet!

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

Well, we’ve packed everything in the camper, short of the kitchen sink, but only because it already has one.

I have packed more books than the kids can read in a month. I have packed enough books on tape to get us to Alaska. I added new songs to all our MP3 players, (yes we all have them), and purchased a new plug in thingy so that when all else fails, they can watch a movie on the laptop.

I think I have managed to make it possible for us to make it to our family vacation destination without having to speak to each other at all.

I have to take B to see the Oral Surgeon tomorrow, first thing in the morning. He is going to take an X-ray to see if he’s been wired long enough. We are praying he gets unwired.

Then we come home, load in the car and head off for Colorado.

How’s this for trust…I have absolutely no idea where we are going. I have the name of two of the five State Parks we are staying at, and I know the state we’ll be in. That is the extent of my knowledge of this vacation. I do know however, that once we are out of our neck of the woods, D is going to start asking me for directions.

I am going to laugh and remind him that he told me to relax, it’ll all be okay, we have a map, we’ll find it.

I love family vacations!

The blog will be quite for a few days. Something tells me I might have trouble finding a Starbucks to pop into to check my email and update my blog, up in the back country of Co.

See ya in two weeks, unless we run out of books on tape and have to come home early.

She'll be coming 'round the mountain (cause the van's too heavy to go up!)

Today we packed…and packed and packed and packed. I think my kids believe that because we are actually bringing the kitchen sink in a camper behind our van, that they should be able to bring everything else.

They are trying, but I am resisting. The kids are bringing every pair of shorts, flip flops and tank tops they own, because they’re Texans and simply don’t believe they won’t need them. They can’t seem to understand that in the mountains it might actually be cold. It is a shocking thought, but I assure them it is the truth.

So the packing goes like this…they pack the summer tank tops, swimsuits and shorts, and I pack the jeans and jackets. So we basically have every piece of clothing they own…all four of them…in one pull behind camper. We have also filled this small pull behind camper with enough groceries to feed my family of 6, (that eats like a pack of wild dogs). And now my poor little ford E350 12 passenger van is going to have to pull it up the mountains…and quickly. Actually not necessarily quickly, just quicker than my husbands brothers are doing it, because they are not competitive or anything.

I have to tell you that the week before vacation is quite possibly the main reason a mother looks like she NEEDS a vacation (or a sanitarium) by the time the get out the door.

The time has come...

We writers are a strange lot. I include myself in the ‘we writers’ group, not because I think I am actually legitimate enough to consider myself a writer, but because I write, and I am definitely strange.

I haven’t really told a lot of people in my real world that I have this blog. I started it thinking it might be a nice way to keep my parents updated on what is going on with my family, but then I never told them about it. I don’t know why, I think it has something to do with the fact that the people in my real life may, you know, have opinions and judgments, and tell me about them.

I love to write, the more I do it, the more I want to do it, and I think in some small way, the better I get. However, if I think someone I know is going to read what I write I freeze up. I can hardly get the words down because every time I type something I think what is _____ going to think of me if I write this? So I can’t flow, I am stilted. I am stuck.

I don’t do well with criticism. I don’t know why. I know who I am in Christ, so why does it bother me if someone corrects my spelling or tells me that the last sentence I wrote is totally grammatically incorrect, or a good writer would, you know, not use ‘you know’ and ‘totally’ in a sentence.

So here’s the funny thing. When I started writing things about my life and my family and putting it out there for all the Internet to read (because you know everyone is dying to know what this Texas, homeschooling mom does with her time) I knew it would get out to those that I know in real life, I just didn’t think it would bother me so much.

But in the end, secrets are bad, and I outed myself anyway.

Sometimes when I write something I think my family and friends might like to read, I copy it and send it to them via email. I know, you’re thinking just give them the link you dork, but you see, then they could read everything I have written, and you know, have opinions and judge. So I just sent them the email.

Know what? When you cut a blog entry and past it into an email, you ARE sending the link to your blog, right there in the title of the entry!

So there it is. My friends and family have probably been reading all along. I’m sure they have opinions and judgments, but they have yet to share them with me.

Time to steal myself…I CAN handle criticism. I am certainly not perfect, I do things wrong, spell things wrong, use ‘you know’ too much, and am often grammatically incorrect.
Hopefully, to know me is to love me anyway.

An Uncommon Kindness

I saw something today that restored my faith in humanity just a little bit.

I was sitting in a little burger joint, next to a gas station that does state car inspections. Getting my car inspected is one thing in a long, long list of things I must get done before we leave on our 2 week camping trip to Colorado. We are going on this trip with two of D’s brothers and their families. It will be a great fun family time, providing we all survive the preparation phase of this little adventure.

So, back to the restoring my faith in humanity thing. I was sitting in this little burger joint watching the mechanic across the street hook up my van up to various machines, and frantically jotting down notes in my spiral notebook that is holding not one, but three of my to do lists, when I noticed a man hop up and open the door for an elderly lady.

But let me set the scene a little better, first off, this man was a bit grungy. He was obviously a construction worker just coming off a job site for lunch with his buddy, and equally grungy construction worker. They had their food and were eating and talking about whatever grungy construction workers talk about at lunch.

Now this lady was a classy looking older lady, here in TX that means big hair, nice seersucker pants and a purse that matches her shoes. She had her hands full of her meal sack and drink, plus her nice purse and keys.

I am embarrassed to admit that I was in the booth closest to the door but did not notice her plight because, as I have previously stated, I was frantically putting very important things on my to do list like “get 1 ply toilet paper for camper” see very important stuff.

I was so proud of this man. He was eating his lunch, he was not right next to this lady, and there were many other able bodied men and women (Hello! ME!) closer to the situation, but he did not wait for someone else to do it. He got up from his meal and did it.

Really, it was a small thing, it took no more than 30 seconds, but it made a big difference to that lady.

I did say to that man, thank you for being gentleman. I am glad to see they still exist. His reply was, “It was no big deal, I just opened a door, anyone could have done it”.

Hummm, I’m sure many would say that too, that anyone could have done it. But only he actually got up off his bum and did it.

That man’s mama raised him right. I pray I do as well with my own sons.

Happy Birthday!

On this day 10 years ago, God blessed me with a girl, a daughter; someone to wear pink dresses and hair bows. Someone who’ll have tea parties, and play in my makeup; finally, someone who won’t love dirt more than their mommy!

 

The boys started early trying to bring you to their side, with motorcycle magazines, and talk of dirt while you slept.

 

 

But I tried harder with books and tea sets.

 

They brought out the big guns and introduced you to motorbikes and mud.

 

 

I brought out the bigger guns and showed you the delight that could be found in a good book, a brand new stuffed dog.

 

They tried video games.

 

I finally won with the girly pink bike.


E, you are growing into a fine, Godly young woman. I am proud of you; I just wish you’d do it a little slower

The boys are back!

The boys made it back home safely. B is 6lbs lighter than when he left and G is without his voice, but other than that, they are all in one piece.


It sounds like they had a great time. They had great things to say about their week at camp and, G came back humming the music from the worship band that was there. He really wants to get the CD. The guy’s name was Scott England.

It is really bittersweet to watch one’s little boys turn into men. They are good boys who love the Lord. I hear over and over from the other adults on their lives, from church and in the family, what great young men they are. I am blessed. Yes D and I have worked hard raising our boys, but it is only by the Grace of God that they are who they are.

It is because the Holy Spirit is working in my boys, and not some great parenting technique that is turning them into the men they are becoming. The Lord has really blessed me with these children I have.

In this culture where there is such a great chasm between the generations, such angst between parent and teen, such complaining and eye rolling. I wanted to put it out there. I love my teens.

Yes parenting is hard, yes it is tiring, yes there have been days that I was ready to throw in the towel and get in my car and just drive away. But sticking in there, working on those relationships, not giving in to the culture that says it is normal for teens and parents to hate each other, well, it has been worth it!

Of course I don’t know what the Lord has planned for the future; I may be singing a different tune before they are all out of the house. I still have two girls to get through the teen years.

Mother Hen

One of my little chicks has come home.

Why is it as mothers, that we feel unsettled when all our offspring are not at home? You know what I am talking about; that feeling that something is off, not quite right.

We can even enjoy their absence for a little while. It is nice to have time alone just as man and wife. But still it's there under the surface, that feeling.

Is this what I have to look forward too when my kids go off to college? Get married? Have their own kids?

I wonder if it will ever feel normal to have my kids away, or do empty nester's just get used to that unsettled feeling and live with it.

Don't get me wrong, I love my husband and we have great plans for when we are alone again, but being alone after kids is so much different than being alone before you had kids.

It really is like a little bit of your heart and soul is out there walking around in the world, exposed.

I can't wait for B to come home tonight. The SR Highers stay one night more than the JR highers.

Tonight I will sleep the sleep of the settled. The sleep of a mother hen whose chicks are all presented and accounted for.

Whatever Shall We Do With Our Time?

D and I have been enjoying having our evenings to ourselves while the boys are at camp. The girls get in bed at 7 and listen to tapes for awhile before they go to sleep. So D and I have all evening to ourselves. It is kinda weird. We haven’t had this much time in the evenings since the kids were little and they all went to bed at 7 and if they didn’t they were infants and not listening, with rapt attention to everything we say.

So what did we do with our week long vacation from older kids? We, cooked good expensive meals like grilled steak, baked potato with portabella mushroom sauce. (OH. MY. WORD. That was good)



We also started a new TV series. It is called Robin Hood. (I know, you’re thinking…not new) but this is a new mini series put out by the BBC (quite possibly my new favorite channel since we got satellite, next to the USA network which airs Monk, but that is another post)

D and I have really enjoyed it so far. We are about half way through it. It is not too dark and it has some funny parts. It does not take itself too seriously. I am getting it through Netflix. They aired it on the BBC before we got satellite and they kept running the reruns out of order. I simply cannot start a miniseries with episode 2. Perhaps I am watching too much Monk.

Anyway, I waited until it came out on video so we could start at the beginning. We have even decided it is (so far) okay for the boys to watch when they get home. No bad words, no love scenes, there is a bit of tension between Marion and Robin but nothing over the top so far. There are, of course, some swordplay and shooting of people with arrows but nothing grotesquely violent. In fact Robin’s whole thing is that he does not want to have to kill anyone, even his enemies, if he can help it. That is why he must be so creative to avoid having to kill the Sheriff.

Anyway, it is really good and I recommend it.

I think I have talked a bout the mini series North and South with Richard Armitage before. He is in Robin Hood as the bad guy and bad guy he is. It is almost disturbing to see such a good guy in North and South be such a bad, bad guy in Robin Hood. I suggest if you have not seen North and South you do so before you watch Robin Hood, and maybe wait a week or two before you start Robin Hood. My delicate sensibilities simply could not handle such a rapid change in personality.

Beware of Two Bored Girls.

I should really ground my kids more! They’re so creative when they can’t play with friends, go to the pool, get on the computer or watch tv.

They were disobedient today about cleaning there room. As in, every time I was not in their room with them, they were not cleaning it.

So I grounded them and amazingly, after that, they got it done pretty darn quick. Of course now they have lots of time on their hands and don’t want to play in their room because they don’t want to mess it up.

When they asked if they could play in the bath, I said sure. Because I’m naive and thought they were actually going to get in the bath and, you know, come out clean.

No that is not what they had in mind.

This is what they had in mind.

They took every piece of aluminum foil and plastic wrap in the house, and every Little Pet Shop in existence and made water cities.


They also made a HUGE mess of the bathroom.

Think I’m gonna stop them? NO WAY! They are quiet and getting along. I’ll just make them clean it up when they are done. That’ll take at least half a day. And we’ll start the cycle all over tomorrow.

Ahhh, summer.

Shaving and Baby Snot.

I got a new razor a few weeks ago in the mail. It was a Gillette Venus Breeze. It is the kind where you don’t need any shaving gel when you use it because it has it built in. Sound familiar?



AHHHH the Intuition, she was my first love. A razor that did not cut me and leave me with little, and oh so attractive, red dots all over my legs.

I would never have strayed except that the clever Gillette Company sent this free new razor to my door. I do know that I am not special, and they sent it to everyone. I understand their marketing practices. They send you the razor for free because you’re going to spend what amounts to the US national debt buying the refills.
So my beloved Intuition went to the back of the shelf and out came the new kid on the block.

So here’s the thing, I like it…sort of. It works as well as my beloved Intuition. It does not leave those ghastly little red bumps all over my legs, but it has a problem. A texture problem if you will.

Do you remember when you had little babies? You know that clear snot that seems to be constantly running out of their little heads for the entirety of allergy season, which consequently, is year round in Texas. That is what happens to those little gel bars on the Gillette Venus Breeze. It took me a while, but I finally figured out why I was totally grossed out by that slimy substance I was smearing my legs with, and why I felt compelled to rock it to sleep before I put back in its case.

That stuff turns into baby snot when you get it wet. Don’t believe me? Get a 6 month old baby in Tx in July, now compare it to a wet Gillette Venus Breeze; exact same stuff! If only I’d known the Gillette Company was collecting it. I could have made a fortune. My kids produced the stuff by the gallon.

But sadly, I am out of the baby stage now and I have absolutely no desire to come in contact with anything resembling baby snot.

Goodbye Gillette Venus Breeze, I knew you well.

And Schick Intuition, will you take me back? I’ll never stray again!

And this, my friends, is why all my kids take their science classes at Co op!

I hated science and it was always my worst subject in school. I have to work really hard not to let my eyes glaze over, and my body go into spazm, when my kids are doing their science homework.

Thank Goodness for our Homeschool Co Op!

Dance or Rant!

Now is the time on Sprockets, when we DANCE! Or, now is the time on Tricia’s blog, when we RANT! (For those of you who didn’t watch Saturday Night Live in the 80’s, never mind the first part of that sentence)

Normally I’m a clam girl. Not much ruffles my feathers, but sometimes, something does. I’ll tell you what makes me crazy. AMBIVALENCE TO SOMETHING THAT HAS DIRE, ETERNAL CONSEQUENCES. That makes me see red!

You have been forewarned. I am going to say some things that are not popular and perhaps even offensive, so click away now, or forever hold you peace (or don’t, and leave me a comment).

First you must read this article from the Washington Post. I first read about this on Christy’s blog. Honestly, I know I should not be surprised. It is the way of things in the time we live. But I am continually astonished that people sit idly by and hand over their hard won freedoms, one issue at a time.

You remember S*x Ed, right? We all had to take it. It was pretty innocuous as I recall, but even back when I was in school there were kids who didn’t attend and whose parents make a stink. As a kid I remember thinking “What’s the big deal”? Well now, as a parent I get it. Why is it the school’s responsibility to teach my kid S*x ED at all? I am pretty sure people who send their kids to school want the schools to teach them the basic academic things; language arts, math, science, history and the like. Teaching kids about s*x in general should be left to the parents.

So years ago the schools started teaching s*x ED in health classes. There were a few who objected, but their cries of foul were soon silenced, and s*x Ed in health class became the norm. It started out that they talked about a man and wife, then a man and woman. (A small delineation with a big moral difference) Now they are teaching that Hom*s*xu*lity is just another lifestyle choice.

Don’t like it? Too bad says the Board of Education in Montgomery Co, Maryland, and I quote “And although a parent does have a right to control the upbringing of a child, "that right is not absolute. It must bend to the State's duty to educate its citizens.”

I do have to add that the Montgomery Board of Education has magnanimously allowed that the parents do have the right to opt out and must sign a permission slip to have their kids in the class. How generous of them. They are still teaching, to the masses, something that was considered a sin just 25 or so years ago is just another lifestyle choice now.

It is a slippery slope my friends. We keep handing more and more of our responsibilities as parents to the government and they’ll happily take it, and do with it what they want.

Rant concluded, your may now move about the Internet.

And...Their Off!

Today I sent my two sons off to camp. This is the first year they have both gone. Our church goes to a camp with many other churches and the JR High and SR High are together. This gives me some comfort that my boys will be together. I know they don’t care. They have great friends and are not at all shy. They’ll get along fine and probably not miss me at all.

It is hard, especially as a homeschooling mom, to watch the most precious things to you on this earth, get in a van and drive away, I’m just not used to it. The mom in me conjures up all the horrible tragedies that can and have occurred in just such a situation. That is when I have to remind myself that they are not really mine anyway, they are Gods. He loves them even more than I do (hard to imagine) and he holds them securely in his hands.

It will be really quiet around here this week. I am so used to having my young men around. They are so good about doing that guy stuff I don’t want to do; like take out the trash, make the VCR work in the back room, fill the bird feeder, fix the broken stuff, carry the heavy stuff and generally do all the manly things when D is gone.

I did stay until the vans pulled away, and waved. I did not take any pictures, even though I wanted to. I hugged them, reminded them to brush their teeth and shower. I did not run behind the vans with my arms outstretched crying and yelling “Come back! Come back!” I didn’t want to embarrass them.

I sent B off with a bag full of liquid food. I can’t believe I’m sending my son to camp with his jaw wired shut. Seems that there must be a rule in the parenting handbook that states “Thou shalt not send ones offspring off to camp with his jaw wired shut”. But I was outvoted by D, B and the youth pastor, who assured me he’d make sure B got enough food.

Actually, I’m sure he’ll be fine. He is not in any pain, his activity level is back to normal, he is acting totally fine, except for that pesky liquid diet thing.

Right before the van’s pulled out and all the kids were loaded, the youth pastor came over to us parents. We all held hands as he prayed for the kids and the trip.

Then he told us that he’d be checking his messages every night around 5 or 6. We could call his cell if we needed something. (We do of course have emergency #’s for the camp as well) He did say please not to call if you don’t need to, the kids really will be fine (he said this laughing not meanly) and then he looked at me and said, “Any parents who are sending their child to camp with a jaw wired shut may call as often as they like.” We all had a good laugh at this one.

I know he was kidding, but I’m thinking a twice daily call from mom in is not too much to ask? But I don’t want to embarrass the boy or anything.

I will not be sick, I will not be sick, I will not be sick!

I’ve not been quite myself for the last few days. I’ve been tired and grumpy and irritable, like I have PMS, except I don’t.

Then yesterday evening, I started feeling a little tickle in the back of my throat, then my head started to feel heavy, then I started sniffling.

Sigh, I am getting sick. I slept terribly last night because every time I lay down, my head would fill and I could not breathe. I got up around midnight and took some Benadryl. UGH! I hate taking that. It is 9am and I am still groggy.

This particular sickness has me a bit nervous. You see D’s brother’s family have all been sick, really sick. My SIL had pneumonia and has been down for almost 8 weeks! 8 WEEKS! I have tried to be helpful and take my nephews now and then and bring them meals, but I think no matter how many times I washed my hands; I have brought the plague to my door.

See, the thing is, I don’t have time to be sick. I have one kid with a wired jaw, which translates into many dr visits. Both boys are going off to camp tomorrow, which means many, many loads of laundry must be done today, plus lots of running around to procure all the necessary items for the boys.

I also have D’s other brother’s girls here until Monday because my bil and sil are out of town. Usually that is not too big of a problem; my girls and my nieces are the same age and will keep each other occupied, but it is 6 kids to feed, bathe, and water instead of 4.

I have to have all 6 of these kids spit and polished and at the church at 8am tomorrow to get the boys off to camp before the service starts. Getting anywhere by 8 am is difficult on a good day.

And did I mention D is on call this week which means he has to work all day today? He is pretty busy the week he is on call and not much help around the home front.

Add to all that, we are leaving for a 10 day camping trip to the mountains in 13 days and you have all the reasons why I can’t be sick.

And sadly, with Fibromyalgia, when I get sick, I get sick. Whatever sickness I have, add to that a whole body ache and you have my kind of sickness.

I am praying for the Lord to be merciful and I’ll wake up tomorrow and feel all better.

Off to take some Tylenol, and then play a game of Clue with the girls. I wonder if I can play while I lay on the couch.

Perhaps I can just yell from my prone position…”It was Colonel Mustard in the library with the lead pipe!”

Gotta love those good ol' boys!

You really must see this. This, my friends is how we take care of things down in TX. When they say Don't mess with Texas, they aren't kidding! (BTW, you must watch a 15 sec commercial first, but it is totally worth it to see this story)

Holy Schomly! I can't believe this news story!

I'd like to thank the Academy...

My friend over at Halfmoon Happenings gave me this award for this post.

I am quite honored. Another friend of mine was trying to describe my writing and said, "Tricia's writing reminds me of someone, who is it, I can't remember. Her writing is so... (she could not fill in the blank so I did it for her)
"Self deprecating and sarcastic?" I filled in.

And while most of my writing is self deprecating and sarcastic, occasionally I can crank one out that comes from the heart, like the letter to my dad on Father's Day.

Thanks for noticing Halfmoon Girl!

Teenager #2

Today my second son turns 13.

He was the happiest baby. He was always smiling.

He was also always dirty.


Not much has changed!


Happy Birthday big guy.

Let Freedom Ring!

God Bless America
Words and music by Irving Berlin

"While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free,
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer. "

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.

Independence Day!

Tomorrow is America's Independence Day. We have some beautiful songs about our great Nation, many of them strongly reference our Almighty God. Too bad our nation gives Him so little time these days.

I'll post a couple more throughout the week.

The Star Spangled Banner
Composed by Francis Scott Key, "In Defense of Fort McHenry", September 20, 1814.
Congress proclaimed it the U.S. National Anthem in 1931.

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us as a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!