Thursday Thirteen Mom edition

Thirteen Things that point to my mom's senilityMy mom (over 50) moved in with us several months ago to get on her feet financially. I don't think she should ever move out, and here is why: 1. Mom couldn't find her phone anywhere, and she was starting to freak out at me because I had used her phone last. I told her I clipped the phone to her purse strap. Could not find it. She tore the purse apart, searched the car, her room, the computer desk. Finally I called the phone and found it clipped to her purse strap. Yes, the purse she had emptied looking for it. 2. I got a call from my mom's cell phone one day, but there was a man on the other end, not my mom. She had left her entire purse, and cell phone, at the grocery store. Thank goodness she was with my mother in law so I could call and have her go back for it. 3. Mom called me from work one afternoon to have me call her cell that she had lost, once again. A man answered the phone. She had lost it at the grocery store. That same night I got a call from Pamida. They had found mom's cell phone in the parking lot. 4. One day mom was really freaking out, she could NOT find her phone. (what's new, right?) She tore the place apart looking for it, and was just near spazzing. So I called it while she looked for it in her room. She had used it for a book mark the night before and put it on her book shelf. 5. Mom and I were visiting in her room and she wanted to show me something, so she went to her closet to get it. The closet is pretty big, it even has a window, but it isn't THAT big. I asked her "When did your curtain rod fall down?" She said "It didn't!" Then she looked and it had fallen, and she should have seen it when she walked straight toward it walking in, or when standing next to it digging in the dresser. 6. Even after living with us for 2 months, my mom couldn't find her way around my house. She would head toward the bathroom when she wanted the dining room, and head to the dining room when she wanted the bathroom or stairs. She always got lost. She's stopped telling us now, but I don't know if she has it figured out or not. We were going to put up signs for her birthday, but decided to be nice. 7. We are afraid if she moves out that she will actually start on her plan to make a sequel to "27 Dresses" and make it 27 Wedding Dresses, always a Bride and Never a Bridesmaid. (she's been married 4 times, she is already on her way, we are going to start calling her a serial bride, lol, and she finds this funny, too, it's a joke) 8. She lost her phone, again, and it was right next to her on the desk. This has happened so many times that I could do an entire TT on it alone, but it would get too repetitive, right? 9. In order to show the need to move her in the first place, we could ask her how many times she forgot her dog at work for the night and had to go back and get her. 10. Her driving is getting to the point that her dog won't get in the car with her. But if your head broke the windshield from slamming on the brakes, would you want to ride with that driver again? 11. Mom has breakfast at a cafe every morning with my mother in law. They both lived in the same area for many, many years and know a lot of the same people. In fact, they both owned the same house, at different times, of course. (that would mean that in our growing up years, both my husband and I spent time growing up in the same house at different times.) Well, they talk and talk and talk every day, and they never run out of things to say. Because they don't remember things so their repeat stories are always new. 12. If she moved out, who would laugh at her comfort her when she comes home crying about seeing road kill after work? 13. And if she didn't live here, I think the dog would get sick of being the only one to scare all the time. You can go check out my mom's rebuttal to these 13 true things on her blog, Bring Your Own Cheese.

Another successful kidnapping

Tuesday was Sarah's birthday. Of course we couldn't do something ON her birthday, she has a standing date with old college friends. Usually we (Jeannie, Jody, Sarah and I, and now including my mom) do weekend kidnappings, at least it seems that way. Maybe I am wrong. But we went for the middle of the week and even got her husband involved. Sarah doesn't like not being ready to leave, so her husband had to find a way to get her ready to go without giving it away. So he told us we made him sin, twice, by lying to his wife.
He did a good job. This year.
In order to shake things up a bit we planned a movie instead of dinner. We took her to Mama Mia. I don't think any of us had high expectations of the movie. Sure, we expected a few laughs, but we didn't expect to laugh constantly! It is a great movie! There are some, ahem, shocking, parts, but it was over all funny and wonderful. Go see it! Really! I have hunted a bit and can't find a pic I want to share: Pierce Brosnan's outfit in the very ending piece. Oh my word, he almost lost his place as my number 2 Hollywood hottie!
(I could go off onto a big rant here about how the movie theater is actually showing COMMERCIALS now. Real commercials! Like spagetting sauce commercials! I don't get a discount for watching them, I paid my ticket, I don't want to watch commercials!)

After the quick run to the bathroom and then begging some random stranger to take our pics, with 3 cameras, we then went to our usual birthday haunt, Applebees. For half price appetizers, of course. Lets just say we got carried away a bit.

Yes, that would be a sampler plate, spinach-artichoke dip, quasadillas, hot wings, nachos, and onion rings. For 5 people. Don't worry, we had doggie bags to bring home.

Happy birthday, Sarah!!!

What do you think about movie theaters starting to show commercials before the movie previews?

Wordless Wednesday #60

Trinity and her Nana Star doll. Trying to be cute or keep from being blinded by the sun?

ROFLOL!!

I was trying to explain Twitter to my husband today and he said something hysterical! Something so wrong I can't even put it on my blog. (not only because he forbid me, and he said he will be checking, but becuase it is just bad, lol) He said it accidentally, but I about fell over laughing at him, lol.

Have you ever had to restrain from putting something hysterical on your blog for fear of death?

Oh, yes, my girly friends, I will be telling it at the next Ladies Night Out!

I interupt this blog for an important announcement!

Baby Cheapskate is giving away 12 BumGenius diapers!!!! You know I want to win those!I love my 1.o and my 2.o dipes, but I have yet to try the 3.os. Oh, how I want to win this giveaway! Ends August 6.

My dear friends, I know you all think it is gross. Or you just can't bring yourself to deal with them. But you know my love of cloth diapers. And I hope you love me. So, if you would enter just for me, I'd love you forever!

Some more photos

Some people may wonder why I would want to hire someone who costs quite a bit more than Walmart or Sears to take our family pictures. But when you see the pictures you will understand. But another reason to be thrilled is that one day I will get to say "Laura Clawson took our pictures before she became famous!" And that, my friends, is cool. I think she will be famous one day. Globe trotting for National Geographic or some other great magazine.

Kaytlin's pictures turned out amazing. Just completely and utterly amazing.

This next picture made Donnie tear up. I love the freckles on her nose, lol. They usually are not visible, but she was actually quite sunburned from being outdoors for 4 days at Sonshine. Her nose is even blistered, but it doesn't show.

I think this is one of my favorite pictures. Kaytlin Ivy out in the Ivy. The greens just complement her perfectly. Her eyes look blue, but usually they are not. She has hazel eyes, and usually they are green when she is wearing green.

This is more typical of her. T-shirt, flip-flops and guitar.

I don't know how I am going to handle this year. She is a senior. She will be spending one last year here at home then off to college! Our first daughter to be out of our safety net. Boys are different, I assure you. Letting go of our daughter? Not going to be easy, even though she is amazingly responsible, mature (far more mature than I am, I would say), and grounded in the Lord.

I don't know, maybe I am biased, but I think I have the most gorgeous daughter ever. I just do.

A sneak peek..........

Here are a few of the pictures we got back. We went for casual because the kids hate it when I make the dress up. So I didn't make them dress up. Just no holes, lol.

Oh, this is so funny!

Snap!

This past weekend Drew, Kaytlin and Devon went to Sonshine Fest in Wilmar, MN. Without me. Or Donnie. Just them and friends. Wow! That was a tough thing to do for us parents. (we are a couple hours away, but my dad is close to Wilmar, and we did know some adult friends who were there, so if they did need anything someone was there.)
Technically, Drew is an adult now, and so were most of his friends, but when do we actually start thinking of our kids as adults? I am not there yet, but I am trying.

At Sonshine the kids learned a new game in addition to the many, many, many amazing concerts that they were able to go to. It is called Snap. I'm not sure I get the reason it is fun, but the kids thought it was "Amazing!" and "Awesome!"

The kids link together using inner tubes between them and the run around trying to make someone bump into a trashcan.

I guess that is it. If they let go of the tubes or touch the can they lose. Doesn't sound too exciting to me, though. They had a wild time playing it and Devon even injured himself, which is a mark of a game well-played if you are a guy.

Drew's friends took our teasing of Devon to a whole new level, too. We tease Devon about Hannah Montana because we've caught him watching it alone several times. Even watching our one DVD of her by himself. Well, his friends bought him a Hannah Montana sticker and one of them even bought him a Hannah Montana pillow. Which he slept on because he is a great sport. Or he really does have a crush on her.

Have you ever had to let go of your mommy-ness and let your teens do things that you felt apprehensive about?
I worry about things out of my control, anyway, and hounded them for weeks before hand about never being alone, always having a buddy, etc.

Great giveaway!

One of these days someone is going to contact me to review the Flip video camera, I just know it.

But in the meantime I just have to enter giveaways for them!

A Daycare Life is giving one away, so go enter to win one.

Ends August 1.

Some pics I took today

Family pictures

Today we had family pictures. It was a bit rough, but we did it. I didn't go to church because Samuel has diarrhea and can't be in the nursery, plus I didn't know if we will end up with the same sickies as Trinity after the whole drinking out of the puke bucket incident.
Well, he hasn't gotten "sick" but he sure wasn't pleasant during the pictures. I am sure that he isn't smiling in any of them, but at least he wasn't crying in all of them, just the last few, lol.
Usually we go to Walmart for our pictures, but since we are doing senior pics for Kaytlin with the same fantastic girl that took Drew's I decided to get our family pics taken with her before Drew moves away.
I am so glad we did, too, because her poses are fun and funky and delightful! One of them caused me to nearly kill myself, but other than that it went without injury. Walking in heels on rocks in the railroad tracks is not a good idea, btw.
Taking a grumpy toddler to pictures is also a bad idea. But the session took place an hour and a half later than planned, so he was tired.
I took some pictures with my camera today, too. When I get to use my computer again I'll post them. (sometimes having all 7 kids home during the day is not so great, lol, it makes me have to share)

The Dark Knight

Last night Donnie and I went to see The Dark Knight (the newest Batman movie for those of you who live in a cave). What is up with all the comic book movies that are coming out? Wow! I have to see all of them because I married a comic book geek, otherwise I probably wouldn't have seen any of them.
The Dark Knight is a good movie. However, I liked Iron Man better. Batman movies are always really dark. This was one of the darkest, I think.
Heath Ledger was amazing as the Joker. Wow! He gave sick and twisted new meaning. I predict he will win a ton of awards, even though he is now dead. He would have won them even if he lived, I don't think it will just be because people feel the need to honor his death.
The guy who played Batman wasn't great, though. I guess he played the part well, but he wasn't fantastic or anything.
It was violent, but I can't remember any swearing.
Do I sound like I am excited about it? No? Well, I'm not, but it really is a good movie. Great story line, great length, great acting in the Joker, and some fun twists.

Game Stop

GameStop is one of our boys' favorite places to shop. All three of our teen boys and their daddy. OK, so I love it, too! But I love it because I am a tightwad and will take a price break anywhere I can get it! I think we've been shopping there for about 10 years or so, before it was even renamed GameStop.

GameStop is the place to go to get some money out of your used games that you no longer play and to get discounts on used games that you want to buy. It is a really easy place to sell your used games and equipment. GameStop offers a trade-in program that lets you bring in the old games and get credit towards new titles or systems. You can also buy new games and systems and attachments for them.

With the heat of summer upon us playing outside gets difficult and finding something entertaining for the kids to do indoors is a challenge. They get bored of the same game after a few weeks, so trading is a great idea for those summer time dollar stretchers.

Cody is our game freak. He'd rather play computer and video games than just about anything, sports, friends, dinner. He doesn't get to play as much as that, but he does play a lot! So for Cody's birthday and even Christmas, much of our family gives him GameStop gift cards. Those are his favorite presents!

Our local GameStop has several game systems set up for customers to try things out. I appreciated trying out the Wii, which so far I am not very good at playing. So I am not sure I want one now. We were able to try out the newest Guitar Hero, too, and that is one of our favorite family games. I think it is because it is one I can play and beat my husband at, and that never happens! But I can't beat the kids. Except at I Love Rock and Roll. They hate that song. I love that song.

I have a gift card coming in the mail for GameStop, it hasn't arrived and we are all bummed. But I'm keeping my eye open for it because a $30 gc is enough to get Cody to rub my feet with lotion for an hour a day for at least a week, hehe. Oh, yeah, I am not above that.

Love As A Way Of Life~ A book review

The winner is KYgirl. I have no contact info, so if I don't hear a response in 5 days, I will pick a new winner. Thank you all for entering and sharing your stories!

Love As A Way of Life by Gary Chapman is a wonderful book. I have thoroughly enjoyed the Love Languages books, but it is hard to implement those love languages when loving is not the way you live your life.

That isn't saying that I don't love, it just isn't the way I do everything. Such as going to the store, I don't think about how I can show love to other patrons or the clerks. Yes, being polite, but loving them? Something as simple as someone saying something nice to me has made a huge impact in my day, so shouldn't I be going for that with everyone I meet? Making eye contact with people and smiling? Saying hello and wishing people a good day? Thanking the clerk for ringing up my order?

I think one of the main things that impacted me in this book was a part about helping others. Sometimes it is hard to accept help from someone else. It puts you in a position of humility. (not to be confused with humiliation) Chapman says "Accepting the help of others is one of the best and most difficult ways of fostering loving relationships." And I completely agree! It brought back a memory of a friend from long ago who explained to me that denying someone the gift of helping me was denying them a blessing from God. It feels good to help someone, and it feels bad to be turned down when you offer to help someone. God blesses people when they serve others, sometimes with good feelings, sometimes with more then feelings. Would I want to deny someone the gift of God to save face? To look like I have no failures or have no needs? Sometimes you genuinely don't need the help, but accepting it when you do need it, or it would really help, will bless you and them. I once accepted the help of someone I didn't know well to clean my house when I was in horrid morning sickness. We are still as close as sisters 12 years later! What a blessing that act was for both of us.

Summary: For decades Dr. Gary Chapman’s best-selling books have shown readers how to speak the “love language” of those they care about. Now he digs even deeper to uncover the foundations of what it means to cultivate a lifestyle of love and how doing so leads to satisfaction and success in every area of life.
Drawing fresh insights from timeless biblical principles, Chapman presents poignant stories of real people who have discovered the joys of living out the seven characteristics of authentic love: kindness, patience, forgiveness, humility, courtesy, generosity, and honesty. Enhanced with eye-opening self tests, practical ideas for building daily habits of love, and inspiring examples of love’s power to change lives, this book guides readers in putting love to work in all of their interpersonal relationships.
Convinced that in a world of constant conflict people desperately need authentic love, Chapman paints a compelling vision of how life can be richer and relationships more satisfying for anyone who practices Love As a Way of Life.

You can purchase a copy on Amazon here.

Or, you can enter to win a copy by leaving a comment on when you have been blessed through help from someone or by helping someone else.
Leave a way to contact you if I can't find you through your profile. I will announce the winner through Prizey Fetch. But you need at least a unique nickname or I can't pick your comment.
Giveaway ends July 31.
You can also triple your chances to win by entering to win a copy at DaisyCrazy and Sassyfrazz.

Aloha Friday #2

Kailani of An Island Life has a great meme on Fridays called Aloha Friday and I am participating again this week.

She says: "In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response."

Honestly I am having a hard time coming up with an easy question, lol. I have some controversial topics in my head that I need to get out someday, but not for today.

Personally, we don't space our kids, we let God decide, but I do have a favorite spacing. What is your favorite spacing between children, and why?

My favorite is 20 months because my body has a whole 12 months to recuperate, and yet they are still close enough to be great friends.

Half-way a reunion

Donnie's mom has 3 siblings, 3 live in Minnesota and one lives in VA/DC area. Lois, the one in VA, came to MN this last week so they had a little get together yesterday. One sister didn't come. I'm not sure if they even invited her, lol, but she is my favorite.
This pic is Roy, Lois and Joyce, plus Donnie over there on the right. He's sick in that picture. I made him show up.





This is a picture of Donnie's nephew, Austin, and Samuel. Sam is just 6 weeks older. I think they are going to enjoy having a cousin their age as they grow up.
This pic would be the happy faces before Austin started biting and hitting Sam. Sam wasn't too impressed with the aggressive behavior. I'm hoping he learned that biting hurts other people and that he will stop doing it. But instead he bit me last night.






This is Donnie's sister Daphne and her little Alexis. She is such a little chunk baby and I wanted to squish her and snuggle her and love on her! But I didn't dare after all the sickies in my house.
I'll get her next time!
But she sure was smiley!

I got a bloggable story, too, but I can't remember it!!!!!!

Trinity is doing great today!

Her fever broke during the night! So far Sam is not sick. Donnie feels pretty under the weather, though.
We had an impromptu family reunion for Donnie's mom's siblings that we had to show our faces for, and that was fun. We only brought Sam and Cody, and not at the same time, lol. (we only live 3 blocks from where we met.)
I'll have to post pictures later.

Things I never thought I'd hear at our house

Today Trinity is sick, being babied up, all tucked in on the couch with her soda and puke bucket.

A little while ago I hear her little voice pipe up "Mom, Sam's drinking my pUUuuke."

Not a pleasant thing to hear. Never, ever did I think I would hear that.

Trinity has a fever of 104.3. I finally have it under 102 after an hour on both Ibuprofen and acetaminophen. It may be a long night for me.

Wordless Wednesday #50-something

The first picture is something I found as I tried to load the second picture for WW. My teenager took his own picture like that for Facebook or something, lol.

The second pic is the baby in a helmet that is so heavy he had to be held up to stay upright. But he sure looks cute!

WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I was going about my business this morning, making my morning cup of coffee, I opened the cupboard door to get the coffee when a rolling pin dropped onto my foot.

No, I don't keep my rolling pin in a cupboard.

And I do NOT keep it in a cupboard standing upright.

I keep it in a drawer.

A drawer that is amazingly full with my mom's stuff added to it.

So someone decided to put it in the cupboard.

Standing upright.

No need for coffee now.

I'm awake.

Kitties are so cute!

We have 5 kittens! We swear we can feel another inside of the mama, but it's been 24 hours since we found the kittens and nothing more is going on. And she feels great, so we much be wrong. I'm not sure how she could have large bones in her belly that move from one side to the other and sometimes feel like a foot and sometimes like a spine, but I guess so.

We are enjoying the kittens. It is nice that they are in the drawer to keep the little two out of them when we are not around. Since my drawer is very, very hard to open the kittens are safe from little fingers. This is actually our second cat to have kittens in one of our waterbed drawers.

Midnight doesn't mind at all when we come and ohh and ahh over her babies. Sometimes she even takes advantage of it to go eat and do her business while we deal with the whiny babes. It is actually quite fun! But she is a good mom, too.

The darkest black kitten is a bully. It wants whatever nipple someone else is on, and it wants it NOW. So it will lay on its side and swat both paws at the sibling super fast, like a girly slapping fight, rowling at the other cat. Some of them give it up, but one fights back, holding tight to it's prize, it swats quickly with one paw. And one time it even used it's back paws to push the other one off!

Sam LOVES the kittens! We brought him in to see them and he looked in the drawer and giggled and said "That keey!" He has never said kitty before! The last two days he has been increasing his vocabulary big time. Hope-Anne asked him if he wanted to watch something on TV and he said "Ya! I so cited!" (excited) For the very first time he started making animal sounds when we asked him to. He does quack, meow, woof, and moo! He also learned GO. He always wants to go outside. He won't say out, but he now says go. It works. Now, if he would start saying his siblings names we'd love it.

I found my camera! Devon had somehow taken it after the grad party and had it all week. yesterday Donnie and I had to drive an hour each way to pick it up from the paintball place that he left it at on Saturday. The battery was dead, so he left it on the table........... Nice. Oh, well, Donnie and I got a couple hours alone in the car, lol. That was nice. Talking and catching up.

Then came the fight.

The remote control for our bedroom TV quit controlling the Dish receiver and is stuck on one channel. We fought over getting it working. We tried everything. We got nowhere. The remote still doesn't control the receiver, just the TV. So, I have to call Dish today.

Am I rambling? Sorry. TV is important, people!

But the kitties are cute!

Guess what I found in my pajama drawer

We knew it had happened, but we didn't know where.

We have a waterbed frame and it is getting kind of old and I have a hard time opening the drawers under my side of the bed. But this morning I had Donnie lift the frame so I could check out my pajama drawer and that is what we found!

Can you see how many kittens there are? It is kind of dark in my room, so we had some time counting them all, lol.

There is one more, at least, in-utero. We can feel it moving around.

Ladies Night!

The girls got together again last night!
Ladies night is one of my favorite nights of the month. OK, it is THE favorite, I'll admit it!
Last night was a bit interesting, though. We have our nights scheduled for a year in advance, so we are always on the calendar. But somehow another event was scheduled over us without anyone bothering to call and let us know. We weren't forgotten, just not informed. Both events were on the schedule. We didn't even find out in time to move it because we don't know who is coming each week, so we would have to call every woman in the church just in case they decided to join us this month.
But we made it work. We are determined!

There was an awful lot of food, as usual. Then there were the games. We decided that we can't play games in any other room but our usual because the close confines hurt some ears. (we are loud, what can I say?)
There was one new lady this week. We broke her in good. We went for Guesstures last night, not the usual Quelf. (we can blame that on Cindy because she wasn't there) With 9 people we split up into two groups, the group of 4 happened to have 2 women in pink shirts and 2 in yellow, and they dubbed themselves the Pink Lemonades. My group happened to not only be wearing either red, white or blue, but happened to be sitting in that order! Two red shirts, a white shirt and then 2 blue shirts! Oh, yeah!!! And we won, of course! It was a bonus that my good peeps, Sarah and Jeannie were on my team.
We also played a silly game of What gender baby the two preggos were going to have, and that was pretty funny. Our friend Paula brought a book about it and we went through the ones we could do (we didn't have the draino for the pee test, google it if you must know) and found that Jody was probably going to have a girl and Sarah was probably going to have a boy. Sarah isn't that far along to really have all the symptoms or whatever you want to call our questions, lol, but it was still fun, and turned out the way her husband thinks it is. Jody isn't telling, but we all have thought she was having a girl after her two boys. But we thought that before she got pregnant, too.
I am so thankful we are so loyal to ladies night, the laughing is so important. It heals, cheers, relieves and encourages. It also wears me out. I slept until 10:15am and still didn't want to get up. So we were out until 2am? Whats the dif?
When my mom and I got home everyone was asleep. I was shutting down lights and tucking people in. I found Hope-Anne passed out on the couch and Trinity in my bed without her pull up. But no Sam. Hmmm. I started searching, woke Donnie and he got up and helped search. Why didn't the man in charge of the kids know where his baby was?
We eventually found him curled up in bed with his big brother Cody. That was a first, and a good thing. We've sort of been weaning him out of our bed by having him sleep on the couch, often with Hope-Anne. But he will be sharing a room with Cody when he is ready. He slept all night!
Poor Cody said he kept waking up on the edge of the bed being pushed off by Sam, so he had to push him back against the wall and start over a few times. Sam just likes to cuddle! If you don't budge, he won't budge from your side. But move over and he will follow like a magnet.

Ah! Today the men are off playing paintball! Mom took Cody off to her family and I doubt she will be back tonight. Kaytlin is working. So it is just Hope-Anne and the little 2 with me today. I would say it will be quiet, but Sam is creating a racket right now and egging Trinity to join him causing Hope-Anne to yell at them. LOL

Once Blind

One of my biggest fears as a mother is that one of my children will be kidnapped and be forced into sexual slavery. I know that this kind of slavery, and others, is happening right here in the US, even. And I don't want it to happen to my children.
I don't know what to do about it, though. Other than be the over protective mother that I am accused of being.

Kay Strom’s new release, Once Blind, exposes the atrocities of modern-day slavery by exploring the compelling legacy of John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace. I was afraid to agree to review this book. Because of my own fears I didn't want more nightmares in my head. But I do want to see if Strom had a solution to fighting these problems. However, I remain a chicken. I had my mom read the book first! What I didn't expect was her to absolutely love it! She kept stopping to come tell me some part of the book and how amazing it was. How absolutely horrid John Newton was, just a wretched, wretched beast of a man. She really couldn't put the book down, and couldn't stop talking about it. Now I know that I will have to read it on my own.

Once Blind – The life of John Newton by Kay Marshall Strom

I just read "Once Blind" the story of John Newton, the man who wrote "Amazing Grace". What an awesome book. I absolutely loved it.

I had never given a thought to the author of "Amazing Grace", but now the song has a much deeper meaning for me. I have always found the melody to "Amazing Grace" hauntingly beautiful. I would not have guessed that the melody was patterned after a dirge sang by slaves in the bowels of a slave ship.

The book is very well written and reads more like a novel than a biography. I was totally captivated throughout the entire book. It is truly amazing that our God forgives us no matter how wretched we have been. I kept reading and reading wondering when on earth John Newton would see the light – it took him many years.
It is a story of how John Newton was instrumental in ending the Slave Trade, but to me it was an incredible story of God’s Amazing Grace.
Kay Marshall Strom is an excellent writer and I will be looking for more books by her.

Pauline

Here is a description of the book:

After years of research into the former slave ship captain’s letters, treatises, journals, and church archives, Strom has penned a riveting biographical narrative of Newton, a broken and desperate man whose stirring hymn, “Amazing Grace,” has testified to millions of his transformation from the worst of the worst to a ringing voice for God. His personal accounts of the slave trade and piercing cry for abolition, along with the work of his friend William Wilberforce, helped turn the heart of a nation against the African slave trade to bring it to an end. Once Blind draws readers into Newton’s life in an engaging way few biographies can. Readers are introduced to his troubled childhood, his forced service to the Royal Navy, and God’s pursuit of Newton with relentless love and amazing grace. Newton once told Wilberforce, “There are two things I know in my life. I am a great sinner and Christ is a great savior.”

Strom is convinced her poignant account of John Newton’s fight against slavery two centuries ago is a very relevant call to action for believers today. “Slavers today don’t sail the high seas with chained captives packed into the holds of their ships like in the days of John Newton,” Strom writes. “And they certainly don’t march the slaves out to auction blocks behind the post office and sell them to the highest bidder. Yet when people are owned as property, bought and sold, physically punished for not working hard enough, locked up so they can’t leave, and thrust into deplorable or dehumanizing work conditions, then, whatever they’re called, they are slaves… Never have we needed John Newton’s legacy more than today!”

Unexplainably, most people are completely ignorant of the gruesome details of present-day slavery:
· Forcing a woman or girl into commercial sex, especially one under eighteen, is one of the most common forms of human trafficking today—rampant especially in Eastern Europe, Asia, India, and Nepal.
· Millions of people are enslaved as bonded laborers, especially in India.
· About 218 million children between the ages of five and seventeen are trapped in child labor, according to the International Labor Organization.
· As many as 300,000 child soldiers are presently forced into over thirty areas of conflict/war around the world.
· The U.S. government estimates that between 15,000 and 18,000 domestic and sex workers are trafficked into America each year and then tricked into working for little or no pay.

“Bringing awareness to modern-day slavery is my passion,” states Strom. “I have done extensive traveling and writing and have seen firsthand the individual faces of suffering in India, Sudan, and Nepal. We as Christians have stepped back from ‘doing justice and loving mercy’ like the Bible commands, when we should be in the forefront. As I address audiences across the country about this subject, I am asked again and again why we do not hear about these injustices. I have to answer them honestly. It’s inexcusable.”

Perhaps John Newton’s own explanation is just as applicable today. “The slave trade was always unjustifiable, but inattention and interest prevented for a time the evil from being perceived.” Fortunately, Once Blind deftly lays bare this evil, leaving readers no further defense for apathy and inaction.

You can find Once Blind on Amazon.

Overheard in the bathroom

I was in Burger King today and made a stop in the bathroom before heading off on the slightly long trip home.
As I was about to sit on the toilet I heard the gal in the next stall say something. It soon became clear she was not talking to me. And we were alone in the bathroom. I froze.
She was talking on the phone to someone and telling them she was in the bathroom!
"I'm in the bathroom. Si'. In the bathroom. Yep. I was taking a crap and thought of you. I just thought I'd call and apologize. Ok, I'll call you later. I love you. Bye."

Yes, she thought of someone she loves because she was taking a crap. I don't think I'd like to have been on the other end of that conversation.

A while back a blogger talked about this, being on the phone in the public bathroom. I thought it wouldn't be a big deal if someone else was on the phone, after all, they'd be the ones who should be embarrassed if someone made a loud noise in another stall that the caller could hear, right?
But when it came down to it, I couldn't even sit down and pee until she was off the phone.

And I am not paranoid about that. I would, and have, used the bathroom while on the phone with really good friends and some family. We'd go to the bathroom together in public, so who cares, right?
But this was an invasion of my privacy. Very, very weird.

So, would you have been able to go? Would you have said something through the stall? Would you have come home and blogged that strange conversation? LOL

A little bit of yeast...

Saturday I was making frosting to decorate Drew's cake. As I was mixing in the food colorings I started thinking about how I shouldn't add too much, because it was too hard to lighten the color back up. And I realized that just one drop of black food coloring and I would not ever get back to true white again. I could keep adding white frosting to it to lighten it, but it would always be "dirty."
Just like sin in our lives. A little sin and no matter how many good deeds you do you can't go back to pure.
Then, on Sunday our pastor preached a sermon using the verse Matthew 16:6"Be careful," Jesus said to them. "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." He spoke about how the yeast spreads through the dough, like sin.
It just kind of struck me that something like that came across me twice in 24 hours.
Kinda makes you go "Hmmm."
Thankfully Jesus CAN make me white and pure again!

The Cake

Here is a picture of the cake. If I ever make that style again I have much better ideas on how to make it all work better. But it was still neat.

Now that I have more time today I think I'll blog about the whole day.

I didn't get much sleep Saturday night because mom and I were cooking and decorating until 10pm and then got to come home and finish the picture board that Kaytlin wasn't done with. It was after midnight when we went to bed.
Sunday morning I got to get up and re-clean the house after leaving all the kids home with no adults for half the day.
After church we had to finish decorating and set up for the food. That was a bit of a fiasco at first, I ran out to do a few things while my mom was busy, and then she freaked out a bit because I had left her with the kids and she didn't know what was going on. But that got worked out.
Jody, Sarah, and Jeannie took over the kitchen and did all the work during the open house. I am beyond thankful, it went so smoothly and I hadn't expected them to do it all, just help me, lol.
I couldn't believe how much of my family came! Of course I expected my dad and step mom to come, and my sister could just tag along with them. But one of my brothers showed up with his wife and one of their kids, he owes me anyway, I go to lots of his children's parties. (It is 2 1/2 hour drive each way) My husband's aunt and her adult daughter came. I'm not sure why it surprised me, but it did. She is the best, she has never missed a single birthday in my family the whole time I've been married to Donnie. She gets every kid, even, lol. Even my parents flake out on that, lol. A big surprise was one of my dad's sisters that came. We so rarely see each other that I barely thought a card would come.
My mom's family was the craziest. They had a 3 hour drive each way. The two men that came, my Uncle Bill and my cousin's husband Todd, should not have come, but they did. Uncle Bill has kidney stones and has had a tube in his back for a week that fell out and he is peeing blood. But he came. Todd just had gall bladder surgery two days before hand. Crazy fools! But it was nice to see them and I am glad they came.
During the party Cody was climbing up a set of stacked chairs, not sure why, and his knee cap went out of place and he fell backwards onto Hope-Anne and busted her nose, but popped his knee cap into place. So he was hobbling around. It has happened a few times to him, and happened to Donnie a lot growing up, too.
After the long clean up at the end of the day the whole running over Hope-Anne's foot thing happened and I spent 4 1/2 hours in the ER with her.
Drew's party continued without the adults. First they went off to play Extreme Dodgeball on tennis courts. The kids in sandals and flipflops had to go barefoot so they wouldn't fall or sprain an ankle. Turns out that would have been better. The courts are so rough that it tore a huge chunk out of one kids foot, caused many, many blisters and bruises, too. The kid that tore a huge chunk of skin off took off his shirt, tore it in half and wrapped up his feet and kept playing. Yes, the kid is joining the Marines.
Then the kids went blatting. I can't say what that is, but it is harmless, messy, and gross and I wouldn't want to play it. You are not supposed to know what it is until you go blatting.
Then they hung out in my garage all night.

Then next morning I took care of crutches for Hope-Anne, thanks to my friend Jeannie who happened to read my blog and call me as I was walking out the door to go rent them. She had two pairs for me to borrow.
When we got home I checked Cody's knee. It was still swollen, but he didn't want me to take him in. I did anyway. He is now in a knee brace and needs to see an orthopedic doc. I don't think they will do anything until his body is done growing, though. But at least the brace may help him not have it happen too many times, so maybe he won't need knee surgery as early as Donnie had it done.

That's my story! One on crutches, one in a brace, and two more limping. (Drew bruised his heel and Devon has blisters) Oh, and Donnie pulled his back, too, bending down to put on his shoe, lol. Sound fun?

Whew! It's done!

I don't know where my camera is yet, so no pics. I didn't even take a picture of the cake, so I will have to bug my dad or my friend Jeannie for one. The open house went really well, because I have great friends! They just ran every thing and I spent time with my family and friends.
I didn't even try to count the people, so I have no idea of how many people came. I guess I could count the cards and try to figure it out from there, but not today. I'm tired.
After 3 days on our feet, all we wanted to do was go home, but we cleaned up almost everything (planning to go back today to pick up the rest of the stuff) and then headed home to face the dreaded unloading and putting away of the left overs. Mom and I pulled in with the Jeep and were headed to the back to start unloading when Donnie pulled in with the car with Hope-Anne and Cody.
Donnie starts pointing to Hope-Anne in the backseat and she was crying and rocking back and forth. I thought she'd gotten in trouble and asked what happened. Well, she got her foot run over by the car! I ran over to take a look and started yelling at Donnie for coming home with her and not straight to the ER! She was bleeding and I knew she needed stitches, and what is something broke?
Donnie and the kids were picking up the signs pointing to the party and Hope-Anne started getting out of the car before the car was stopped completely and when her foot hit the road but the car kept moving her heel went under the tire a bit.
I kicked Cody out of the car and hopped in to go with to the ER. Hope-Anne's blood pressure at check in was 145 over 91! She was freaking out! She started hyperventilating, even. She really has never been hurt before. I sent Donnie home to check on mom and getting things unloaded and to come back with my purse while I got her settled.
We got back in the room and put a line in her arm, which she freaked about, and they had to stick her twice because they tried putting it in her wrist, which is the most painful place to put it. They were digging around trying to hit the vein when I told her to stop and just put it in her arm higher, first stick, no problem. Then they gave her morphine, and I requested some warm blankets, which calmed her right down.
We had to go for x-rays THREE times!
We are so thankful that nothing was broken at all. She had rocks in her skin, so we had to go back for xrays to be sure they were all out.
They were unable to stitch her up because the skin was so bad it would be like stitching butter and they would just pull out. But it is better to protect from infection anyway, they said. We also gave her a tetanus shot. I don't immunize, but she is older now and her brain is developed, and with the dirt and rocks in her skin I really felt it was needed.
The doctor talked about putting her on crutches, but didn't end up doing it. I am going to go rent some for her today because she is really hurting now that she doesn't have morphine and the 20 injections of Novocaine and the numbing gel in her.

Warning, gross picture ahead!
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The work continues

It is really, really difficult and stressful to plan an open house! Ugh!!!! When you have no idea who is going to show up you have no idea how much food to make. Or what food to make. Or how much money it is going to cost. I'm about pretty stressed out now.
The cake is baked, assembled (which was no easy feat), and frosted. I still haven't decorated it! I am thinking of bringing it to the church first so that if it does have a little accident that it is easy to fix. I had to do some creative stacking in order to be able to use each layer separately. I don't have cake boards in the size and shape I need, so I had to make them, and then somehow find a way to stack them without touching while making it appear not to be separate cakes. Sound fun?

Mom took 4 kids out of town all day, and then they ended up spending the night, so I had tons of time to get things done yesterday. (and today, they still haven't left to come home) But the house is in worse shape now than before they left, lol. Laundry galore is stacking up on the couch as I enjoy using my finally fixed washing machine. Kaytlin left a mess in two rooms while making the picture boards, and is not finished yet. Now she is at work, so guess who will have to finish it?

The little kids are having a blast, though. First, after heading on their way south west of us they were playing car games and somehow nearly ended up in Wisconsin. Not the right direction. But they made it. They had a blast at the lake, tubing, boating, playing with cousins. Sam discovered a new favorite pastime: destroying every one's sand castles, whether they like it or not. After the lake fun they went to my cousin's house for some motorcycle, four wheeling and fireworks. It was a jam-packed, fun-filled day for them. And they passed out and slept all night.

Devon came home at nearly 1am from his week long Salt Lake City trip totally in love with the city and the kids he met from Stillwater, MN. They are the coolest kids EVER. And Salt Lake City is AWESOME! Even the 24 hours in the bus was amazingly fun and awesome. Crazy boy. I'm glad he is home.

Hopefully I can get a bunch of stuff done before they get home, which would be at the very least 4 hours from now.

What's up?

Yesterday was a busy day! We finally had a guy out to fix the washing machine, I did some shopping at Sam's Club for Drew's Open House this weekend, took Kaytlin to her orthodontist appointment, got home through crazy-get-to-the-cabin-for-the-weekend traffic, and then off to kidnap my friend Jeannie for her 50th birthday dinner with a couple of friends. Only the birthday girl brought a camera, lol, so we'll have to snag her pics to post them. It could almost have been a bloggers get together except our friend Jody won't give in and blog already. And she probably would have the best blog of all because one of her boys says the most hilarious things on pretty much an hourly basis.
Then we all came home to meet up our families for our town's early fireworks display.
Sam was hysterical. The oohing and ahhing! He even said "Booom" in his deep voice, lol. He kept running over to a fence and then the banging would start again and he'd come running to us like he was being shot at, and laugh. After awhile we looked at him at the fence and saw his heiney peeking out between his pants and shirt. His diaper was sagging and pulling his pants down with it! Definitely a full moon last night.
Then back home and getting ready for bed and trying out the washer. Which didn't work. But I finally figured out was because they didn't turn the water back on.
What was wrong with the washer? A doll sock in the pump. A $45 doll sock. Ok, the sock wasn't $45, the repair bill was, but you know what I mean.
Now I get to spend my day baking Drew's cake. And figuring out how to support it because I don't have a board the right size for the cake he wants. But that is usually how it goes, always some problem to figure out, a challenge!
But, it is going to be nice because my mom ditched me. But she also took the 4 youngest kids so I don't have little fingers "helping" me or little bodies to trip over! She took them to some lake for a 4th of July celebration with her family. Far away. All day. All I had to do was pack them up and send them out the door!

Now if only I could spend the day reading..........

Ugh!

Donnie and I had some financial problems over a year ago and we got pretty behind in our mortgage, but we got on a plan and stuck to it. At the end of a year of no late payments we were supposed to have all our mortgage problems disappear and be current again. Customers in good standing. Well, at the end of that 12 months we found ourselves 3 months behind in our mortgage! Month after month Ocwen has been sending us certified letters stating that we have to pay up or be foreclosed on, yet we are current.
We get on the phone and start freaking out, they figure out where they didn't update things and will certainly fix that right up for us. Next month, same thing. They say we are current and they will fix things, this time we got the right guy, he knows what he is doing and will actually get it fixed. Next month, same thing, different "right guy."
Finally we got it down to about $1000 that we "owe" but don't owe this month, but I noticed that they are charging us $58.88 late charges and over $5 for sending certified letters to us for late payments that don't exist. So I called them on it today and they said we are 5 months behind in our mortgage!
I got so fed up I tried to get a new loan to buy them out. First guy I talk to runs a credit report and finds that they have been reporting us as 90 days delinquent for the last 17 months!!!!!
That is why Donnie didn't get the job that he was trying to get a few months back! They wouldn't say what it was, but something on our credit report made him a bad risk for working at a bank. Duh! But it wasn't true!
We haven't been late in 15 months.
Ocwen knows that, after they put us hold for 45 minutes each time we call. First they have to tell us how we are behind, then we have to argue, listen to them read it all off, then us yell at them, then they put us on hold and come back much more serene and less ugly, and tell us we are, in fact, current.
Other mortgage companies, that can't help us because of the delinquent reports, have told us that we are going to have to contact our lawyers, the Dept of Commerce and the BBB. I did a search on one guys' say so and found thousands of complaints about Ocwen and them foreclosing on people who are not even late, hundreds of people in our situation, and worse. Unless you have money for a lawyer, and actual check stubs of payments, they will continue to lie and stick with their stories, charging people outrageous fees that are not owed and worse.

Every month I just get sick opening the statements. Every month I cry on the phone with them and their condescending attitudes, until they discover we are right.

Now I have to do a dispute with them, after purchasing my credit report since the "free" report you are supposed to get is never free. That dispute is with the research department that discards our case every single month because they don't "see" the problem. I don't see it working. So we are going to have to get help.
I am so thankful that we have a legal defense already paid, because other people have had to come up with $1000+ retainers with no guarantees. Ocwen (in Fl, who holds our mortgage) has a bad standing with the BBB already. CNN, or was it CBS, did a show on Ocwen and them being sued for wrongfully foreclosing on someone, even, and all their complaints.

I would tell everyone to run from Ocwen, but you can't, because they buy out mortgages from other companies before you know what hit you. We were bought out before we ever received a payment book from our first lender.

At this point I almost wish we'd have just let them foreclose on us because this is so incredibly stressful. It doesn't matter if we are right or not, they just keep charging us, harassing us with letters and phone calls, and I am a wreck several times a month.

For Women Only! And a giveaway for those women.

The winner is Sublimejen! Congratulations! I will give until Tuesday to hear back, then I will choose a new winner if I haven't heard back.

Update: This is now closed and a winner will be announced shortly!

Seriously, guys, you are forewarned, this post has nothing of interest for you, and will probably horrify you. Run, run away!!!

Girls, stay put!

For many years now I have been searching for a better choice for my monthly feminine needs. Disposable pads and tampons are so hard on me, as I am allergic to them, and I have not been able to use the fantastic Diva Cup due to a tilted cervix.



Cotton Mama was so nice and offered to let me review her natural pads that she makes and sells on her website.
I also tried another brand at the same time. No comparison in my book! Cotton Mama's pads not only did not leak, they did not slide around, either. I felt like I did not have my period at all. That was amazing!

Cotton Mama pads are lush, square pads that you tri-fold for absorbency, but open for clean washing and quick drying. The materials are so amazingly soft that I wanted my panties to be made out of them! I totally felt spoiled! The pads stay in place with two snap settings, making it easy for anyone to use them, no matter their pantie style.



I was in love with Cotton Mama's customer service, until I got the pads, then I fell in love with the pads.
Disposable pads are starting to get a reputation of causing longer, more painful cycles, and of putting chemicals into your system. Using natural products has shown a decrease in cycle lengths and in the severity of them. It also is so much better for the environment. The washing is really easy, I just soak them in cool water in an ice cream bucket under my bathroom sink, then throw them in a garment bag and wash them with my cloth diapers, but if you don't use cloth diapers, it would still be easy to wash them up.


Cotton Mama has offered to give a pad and a pantyliner to one lucky reader! She is so easy to work with and will make a pad you will love.

Cotton Mama offers many great products in her store, like the adorable and fun Whiffy See-Its and her very own homemade vegan soaps that are Divine.

To enter, check out Cotton Mama's website and leave a comment on another great product you would like to try some day. Giveaway ends on July 10th, winner will be announced on July 11th.
United States only.

If you just can't wait, you can place an order and put in the code CUSTAPRDIS for a surprise discount! Sometimes it is 10% off, sometimes it is free shipping, or some $ off, you never know, but it is always good!

Did I disappear again?

I am pretty busy, or should be, so I haven't been posting much. Drew's open house is this weekend and I have lots of cooking and cake making to do. But what I have really been doing is reading way too much.
I went to my brother's two boys' birthday on Sunday, which was nice and I will hopefully be posting a picture from there soon, but to go meant I had to miss my good friend Jeannie's 5oth birthday party. That was a bummer! Happy birthday, Jeannie!

Sam is finally really starting to talk, and it is so much fun! He just finally learned to say "Uh-Oh" the other day, and he also learned to say "Yuck." He also picked up a phrase or two that we must yell at him often "Don't do that!" "Knock it off!" "Stop doing that!"

In order to understand why we'd say those things so often I can take you on a little "tour" of our trip to my brother's house.

Noah turned 3 and got some great presents, lots of trucks and things. Sam wanted the truck, Noah wanted the truck, so they fought over it until I had to go and pry Sam off of it. Anything Noah touched, Sam wanted and tried to take. He broke the wheels off a trailer, upsetting Noah. He stole Noah's drink, so Christopher got him a new drink in a "blue" cup, and as soon as Noah turned his back, Sam took that one, too. And took great joy in it. Every scream Noah gave brought a twinkle of joy to Sam's eyes.
By the time we were leaving Noah was glaring at us, and starting grinning ear to ear when we were walking out the door.

Nana Star

Not too long ago a box was delivered to my house, and as I was opening it I found a bunch of curious faces come running to check it out.
I first pulled out a cute little girl doll, which brought a smile of joy to Trinity's face. Next I pulled out a little yellow man with blue clothing. Samuel seemed to know that it was destined for him, and he squealed as he ran to me to claim Moonman for himself.
Nana Star is a sweet girl who stars in two books so far, where she learns virtue lessons from other sources, such as Moonman.
Moonman is a great little plush doll that lights up and plays a sweet song that does not get annoying, like so many other toys. I love the bright light, but only wish the music would play longer. Nana Star is a poseable plush doll with a couple of accessories, and she faithfully goes with Trinity all over the place. Trinity and Sam love having the characters in the book to cuddle with, and having stories about their toys help give them a character to love even more.

The Nana Star books are lovely stories and come with a CD with the story and sing-a-long music. My kids love to have Grandma read the books. Over and over and over. But the CD's would be great for road trips or for nap times if your child has a CD player in their room.

Here is a video of one of the books, it is very sweet.


You can purchase the book at Amazon here.
You can go to their blog and enter for a chance to win the whole set by telling your best lemons to lemon-aide story!

Wonderfall Event

Going to a wonderful beach location as a family with tons of activities for everyone is a dream of ours. Planning for a vacation is hard work, because you have to keep adding in the cost of everything, hoping you don't forget something and that things are not more expensive than you thought.

Beaches Resorts solves that problem with all inclusive vacation packages! Scuba diving, game rooms, kids activities, babysitting, all meals and drinks all included! What about airport pickup and tips? Included!

The kids have loads of activities that they can take part in through the day and sometimes evenings. The babies have a fun nursery and activities, including water time. The older kids have swimming, treasure hunts, arts and crafts, glass bottom boats and more. The teens even have an Xbox 360 game area, karaoke nights, and more.

I just love all the water sport activities that are free, even the equipment for scuba diving! Donnie and I could go on a romantic sailboat ride while the kids enjoyed their own activities. And then we could all enjoy things together, also, like playing beach volley ball or swimming in a cool, clear pool. (What? You didn't think I'd go in the water where the fish are, did you?)

Beaches is having a Wonderfall event in September and October with up to 45% off! A 5-6 night stay gives you one free night, and a 7+ nights stay gives you two free nights stay. Go check them out and see just how wonderful a worry-free vacation could be!

Got Skin?

Living in Minnesota in the winter causes some intense dry skin. Being a mom causes dry skin, with all the washing of dishes and little bodies and mess after mess.
I absolutely hate having dry skin. It burns and itches and I am a wimp.

We have gone through tons of lotions, but nothing actually heals, just temporarily covers up the problem. Until now.

Skin MD is a shielding lotion that protects and moisturizes your skin. Cleaning chemicals and soaps are absorbed into the skin causing it to dry out. Adding lotions convinces your skin it is moisturized enough so it stops producing enough moisture. Shielding lotion blocks the chemicals from being absorbed into your skin and holds the moisture your body naturally makes inside by bonding to your skin.

Even serious problem skin can be helped with Skin MD. People who have eczema and psoriasis have had great results. My own daughter, Kaytlin, has sensitive skin and uses a shielding lotion with much better results than any lotion has ever given her.

Skin MD goes on like liquid silk and feels amazing on your skin. Soft and moist and finally comfortable. Skin MD is not yet for sale very close to my home, but I shall be suggesting it to our local pharmacies. I even have a sample in my purse to run up to my doctor, I think he and his staff will love it with all the hand washing they do.

Refreshing Security with Schlage Locks

Security is something that we have not put a lot of thought into, or at least not enough. We want to keep our family safe, but we don't want all of our children carrying keys around with them. That would be 10 keys floating around if we all had one. I do enough losing of the keys to trust the kids with them.

This has caused us a lot of problems. If we lock the front door typically we can't hear someone knocking. (the doorbell is another story, our door bell rings the bell across the street and vice versa) So, it is unlocked a lot. Even when I would not be home when the kids got home from school, I would have to leave a door open, not knowing which kid would come home first, so noone had a key.

Schlage lock provided the answer for us! Schlage Electronic Keypad Security Products provide a safe option for families without the worry of losing a key. (or 7) You can program up to 17 different combinations into the lock. Everyone can get in that needs to get in without numerous keys.

We love being able to lock our doors and not worry about being home in time to let the school kids in after school. But we also love that we can give grandparents their own code so they can come and go while we are away (or don't hear the door). Sometimes we need to have a pet sitter come in when we go out of town, and Grandpa is the sitter of choice. But, you can also put in a temporary code to let in a repair man while you are at work. They can get their work done with you gone and no chance of a key being copied, then remove the code!

We were so impressed with the quality of the Schlage locks. They are heavy duty and secure. They are so easy to program and use. Installing the first one was a bit tricky, as you know, men are not big on reading directions, ahem. Nothing a little wood filler won't cure, I hope. But once you know what you are doing it is actually easy to install.

Having a keyless entry to our garage is a bonus, too. It keeps the little kids out, but allows us to be able to come and go during yard work without carrying our key chain around with us.

The locks come in four great finishes and several styles:

Thank you Schlage and Mom Central for allowing me to be a part of this tour! It really solved a dilemma in our home.

Wowser! What a great prize!

Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

Isn't that amazing?! Five baby carriers of your choice of style! I've been wanting to get a Mei Tai for some time, and I hope to win this one!

Stop picking on Devon Day

I can't keep picking on Devon much longer, even though he does give us lots of material, he is maturing and changing so much over the last year and I am so proud of him.
I have had people come up to me and tell me how Devon has befriended their (new) child into the youth group, and I keep wondering if there are two Devon's in the church. But, no, he is actually starting to be kind and thoughtful and he doesn't care too much what other people think of him.
For instance, Devon will declare his faith, and he will even risk trouble at school to argue the truth with evolutionists. He has refused to do assignments that compromised his faith; he was supposed to make up a god, and he strongly believes in not having any other Gods. The teacher called me, and when it was confirmed that it was his religious belief, he was given a different writing assignment.
Most of Devon's friends are not Christians and do not always do things that are appropriate. Devon, who is 15, chooses to stay home most evenings and weekends instead of having to make those choices. That makes me so proud of him! I know he'd rather be off having fun, but he isn't going to compromise.

This weekend Devon leaves for a week long learning and service trip to Salt Lake City. I wasn't very excited about the cost, the distance or the city, but our youth pastor really hounded me about it until Donnie and I agreed to let him go. Pastor C really thinks this is going to be great for Devon, and I trust him, he has done amazing things with the youth in our church. And he liked Devon, or at least pretended to, even before Devon turned his behavior around, lol. So, Devon leaves, way out of my reach, for the second time in his life and I am really excited for him. And this time I even trust him.

Devon has a knack for living life. We can send him some place with no money, and he will be fine. It is weird, but people just buy him things, take him places, etc. We don't know how. He is also extremely fortunate, winning things, things going his way, etc.

Thus ends Pick on Devon Week.