snap!

Guess who we caught last night?



ps- in the comments, Bia asks if it was Fievel that we caught. Actually, no. It was either Rishon, or his brother Ravid. Just as long it wasn't Ibrahim, we should be doing well.

early voting.... it ain't for sissies

Well, although it took me three hours, my ballot has been cast. Now, if the polls have tumbleweeds and the sounds of crickets chirping on Tuesday, I am going to be quite peeved.

squeak squeak

OK folks, it is officially fall and cold weather has hit. Time to bait the mousetraps. 'Cause I don't know about your house, but the second night of cold weather brings the little buggahs inside. Don't believe me? Set one!
Also, as told to me by a very good friend who never wants me to say her name for fear she will fall down another flight of stairs: "Um. I hate to tell you this, but, they come in pairs."

you know it's a bad day when..

...you use the word "devoid" before 8 a.m.

Ironic that Bia just posted this about Martha and Mary. Just last week I was really beating myself up about the fact that I am such a Martha. In my frustration, I told King that I'd like to swipe all the surfaces of my home into a trash can. So many giblets and pieces of paper that represent responsibilities or things to decide upon. So many sentimentals. It's enough to drive someone up a wall, when all they really need to do is go to the foot of Jesus. It IS what's important.

There are a constant attack of projects to get done for a stay-at-home mother of 5. Laundry always. Kitchen for the millionth time. The floors which somehow are never clean. The list goes on and on ad nauseum.

However, I do recognize that there needs to be a balance. Until I find it, I beg God's mercy. Tonight, for example, we were supposed to have the time to pray the Rosary together. I locked my keys in the car at the dance studio and the kids are getting ready for bed. *sigh* King and I will be praying together on the way to unlock my car I guess.

have you had yours?

Mammogram tomorrow! Have you made an appointment to have your mammary glands checked this year?

homemade sauerkraut?

OK, while surfing other folks' blogspots, I ran into this about making your own sauerkraut. It piqued my interest, so I went to youtube and watched a video about it. Very cool.
Any of you ever done anything like this? The closest thing I've done as far as playing with "good bacteria in the kitchen" is making homemade yogurt.

Anybody want to try it with me? C'mon, It'll be fun. I'll even get King to grill out some kielbasa.

on sports

Thank GOD there are only a handful of sports played around here. We have recently finished volleyball season. We are in the midst of soccer and football. And number 2 has just decided he wants to try out for basketball! (insert: Marge Simpson-style growl here) I don't know how much more "scheduling" I can handle.
With dance being a twice-a-week event, and fiddle being right after school on Thursdays - on the OTHER side of town, I am stretched just about as far as I want to be stretched.

Ok, I know I sound like a babyhead. Whine over.

never too old to say really cute stuff

Number 3, my beautiful third grader is making her birthday list (she'll be 9 on All Saint's Day) and wants to buy some "lip chap" with her birthday money.
I just simply don't have what it takes to correct her. I know that is probably child abuse, or neglect at best, setting her up for embarrassment later down the road... I don't care. It is just plain adorable. Who knows, she may even know it is really called chap stick.
When she was a wee thing (3 - 4ish) she called a knife a "life". Finally I told her once that although the correct word for said object was "knife", I preferred her to keep calling it a "life" at least while she was at home.
I know. Go ahead. Call DFCS.

survey question

The stem end of a banana: "pop top" or "handle"?

I've always used the top (stem) end as a pop top to peel a banana. My adorable, but in this instance odd, husband uses it as a handle and opens it from the blunt end. While it is a neat concept to use the stem as a handle, you get banana peel goo in your thumbnail. I had never before met anyone who does this. Please feel free to weigh in on this poll.

...until next year

Here you can barely see the mountains in the distance. Yes, it is good to be home, but I still long to have at least one foot in the "no diaper zone".

Though my mom has no computer, doesn't want one, wouldn't know what to do with one if it gave itself freely to her, I wanted to still thank her here on my blog for her generous gift: time away from my life as a wife and mother; time spent with her and my sister, now that we are all adults (thought you'd never get there, Liz - LOL!!! jk).

don't make me leave

OK, I am home (noooooo!) from THE spa. Ohmigosh! It was the most fantastic, relaxing time ever. Mom, Liz, and I laughed and laughed. I thought we were going to float to the ceiling like Uncle Albert in Mary Poppins at one point.

Thankfully, there was no lemon-infused water incident, though there was a close call with a cup of java.

One of the funniest things was on the way up the mountain, when we were wishing there were a "therapy room" in which we could all three be in to enjoy our back massages. Don't know who it was who came up with it, but we figured what we were wanting was a massage a trois. It caught all three of us off guard and we nearly drove off the side of the mountain laughing about it.

We ate lots of good food. We relaxed in the whirlpool. We relaxed in the lounge. We even relaxed in the relaxation room (no, really, see for yourself... we decided this must be what Heaven's waiting room must be like):

The Relaxation Room at Westglow Resort Spa

We did actually get a bit of exercise (treadmill and aquacise class) and I got a hair cut. But, for as much as we crammed into those two and a half days, the weekend went way too fast.

the "look"

Sometimes a stern look is all it takes when you are dealing with children. With adults, it's a completely different story. Take our "Laughing Ourselves Skinny" group, for example, when they say they will be there at 6 p.m. and I go, and I'm there, and I climb on the treadmonster, and I wait... and wait... and wait. It is so much more fun when our whole group works out - we laugh and cut up and before you know it, 30 minutes has flown by. Notsomuch fun when you're by yourself.
OK, girls (insert stern look here) don't make me get out the bullwhip! We simply cannot rename our group to "Driving Ourselves to Failure Whilst on the Way to the Ice Cream Store".

puzzler

Ever tried to put the padding in a pair of football pants? Gee whiz. I did feel on top of my game this morning.

don'tcha love the rumor mill

I was intrigued to read this about urban legends. I remember believing some of those early emails, especially the one about the underground black market of internal organs. Nowadays, I'll decide by the subject title. If something sounds too good or too wacky to be true, I just delete it. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone followed those same rules? There'd be a lot less spam, I'll tell ya.

Recently, I received an email entitled "Are these the end times?" The email portrayed Obama as the anti-Christ and tried to "prove" that we are in the end times. Look, whether he IS or ISN'T the anti-Christ, if it is the end times people, then so be it. There "ain't" a damn thing we can do if we are in the end times. Get right with God and there's nothing to worry about.

I have a friend who had a yard sale today and was planning on selling the entire contents of her home so that she and her husband could move to NC where she will be closer to the mountains. She is putting all her trust in her belief that we are getting ready to see the end of the world. Scripture has told her to escape to a cave. As nutty as it sounds, I gotta love her for who she is. She's convicted. She's one of my dearest friends and always will be. I'm not going to sit in judgement of her decisions. I am just going to pray that she will somehow be comforted by Christ's peace, no matter where she is living. What else is there to do?

I have another acquaintance who tends to go overboard on this type of urban legend/rumor stuff. A real "the sky is falling" type of personality. Paralyzed with fear. Perhaps I've said this before on my blog, perhaps not, but it bears repeating. In the Catholic Mass, during the consecration of the Eucharist, the priest prays the words: ".....and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ." Can it be any more clear than that? If we pray this in earnest every Sunday (and every time in between that we attend Mass), are we doubting that God will deliver on that request? No, He will protect us from anxiety for as long as we allow it.

grab a spoon

Number 5, and her adorable curly-headed, sweet self, is running around the house this morning with a pair of toy binoculars pressed against her nose saying, "I see you."

Just doesn't get any cuter than that.

frustrations

Among the overwhelming frustrations this week, I have tried in vain to get my house clean. To no avail. The wee ones in my life and a few of their friends are like a professional demolition team.
At lunch today, for example, it came to pass that I had baby food carrots all over me, the floor, the oven door and cooktop, the lower cabinets, and oddly enough, the upper cabinets - so far up that I couldn't even reach to clean them without the aid of a stepstool. All due to just the right "land" when a container of Gerber pureed carrots went *splat* onto the floor. Wanna know the most ironic thing of all? The container was still more than halfway filled - no lie!
After crying out to God aloud and getting everything wiped up, as I was eating my now cold soup (I know, poor me, right?) I kept thinking about a time not too far off in the future when I will be free from all stresses of these four walls.

season opener

The two middle kids both had their first games tonight. Number 3's game (soccer - our first experience with the sport) was at 6:30. She did great the first half and then by the end of the second half, she was daydreaming a lot. Makes for a yelly kind of Mom. But, by the time she walked off the field, don't worry, I didn't scold her. I told her how great she did the first half. I said, "I noticed in the second half you must have been getting tired or something, because you weren't watching the ball." I encouraged her to stay focused for next time.
Number 2's game (football - God's favorite sport) started at 7:45. We were able to get there right after the first couple of plays. The score was already 6 to 6! He plays on both offense and defense. The game was 20 - 20 at the end of the game, so they went into overtime. His team scored a field goal, but the other team was the first to score a goal. Even though they lost, it was a pleasure to watch those boys play. Might be a chance he broke his finger though. eek.

taking myself by surprise

I jogged a mile tonight at the gym!

whoooo hoooo - - go me!

Next stop, 5K

that, too

Took numbero uno on a retreat yesterday. Most all of her 8th grade class plus the CCD kids from Church went. It was at a nearby lake and some of the activities (team building stuff) were in a wooded area.
So, when I got home I told King that he might want to check me for ticks (an inside joke which probably needs no explanation). Number 3, without missing a beat, says, "Yeah, and I can check you for tocks."

newest acquisition

King told me a couple of months ago that all he wanted for his birthday was a bike for me. How sweet was that? Well, his birthday came and went. I got him 2 outfits, but no bike. (I actually have an antique bike that one of my favorite cousins bought for me several years ago. It is a lime green cruiser. It needs a tune up. It is great to use on flat ground.) Since our neighborhood is filled with hills, I needed a bike with gears so that I can burn several calories getting to the top. So, after lunch today, we went to a local sports store and found a hybrid bike. Basically a geared cruiser.
We got home and I had to absolutely sit on my hands until we went for a ride.
Number 1 babysat for us while King and I went for a ride. Going up those hills was killer, but fairly easy with the gears. (I've never understood the concept of bike gears until today.) I got a fantastic workout and now I wish I could be biking right this very moment.

Lemmie just say, coming back down the big hill is WAY more fun than the way up! Whooo hooooo!

yeah, right

A postcard from Comcast cable tv company... spend 40 dollars a month to restore family value.

Translation: Further corrupt your family values with the crap that is on tv by taking "advantage" of this this "great" family value. (as if it was)