Fourth of July contests!

I love contests! Five Minutes for Mom
is having 12 between now and July 4th. Just click on the banner to check it out!
There is a Krupps Ice Cream maker
with a cute set of bowls, no need to add ice or salt with this maker!
How about a custom swimsuit from Land's End? We only need 9 of them each year, so I'd love to win that one.
There will be a new contest each day, so check them out!

Plus!!! Adventures in Baby Wearing is having a Summer Sling Give-away! An amazing Solarveil sling that blocks out the rays from the sun, perfect to wear while swimming, or walking those state fairs and summer amusement parks. These are made by KimzKreations on ebay. I am definately in love with wearing my baby, I have a sling and a wrap, but my sling is rather hot to wear, and Sam learned how to arch his back and stand in it in .02 seconds. My wrap is awesome, but no sun protection.

I won something! I won!!!!!

Callapidder Days had a bunch of book give-aways, and I finally, finally won something! I love contests and give-aways, but I never win. Now I have!

The Reliance by Marylou Tyndale! Finally a pirate and Christian romance all wrapped into one!

I can't wait to read it!

Christians?

What does a Christian have a responsibility to do when someone is facing a situation? Lets assume both parties are truly saved, Jesus loving people.
Do you just accept their side of the story and assume there is no other truth, and just offer complete sympathy? Do you sympathise but still discuss where an area of sin could be a problem?
I'm not saying make the judgement call, just point out the possible problem, and leave it to them to work out with God.
Is it tickling their ear to just say "Oh you poor baby!" and not address the issue? (or possible issue)
If its not a sin, and they have sought God, and are comfortable with where they are, then all is as it should be, right? But if it is sin, and they are not seeking God, but all the other Christians did was sympathize with their situation and not try to point them to God, is that sin?
Why does this keep coming up for me? I can't talk about one situation and I won't bring on more publicity for the other situation. But I am left hurting for trying to love on someone and point them to God for direction and truth. Not my truth or their truth, but God's Truth. With no opinion on what the truth is. It hurts to have our sin pointed out, I know, but I love my friends who are willing to call me on it, or to make me be SURE of what I am doing.
I have had to make some tough decisions in following God, things that really go against the grain even in Christian circles. Things that make other Christians mad because they think if I am called to it that I think they are in sin or something. So I have learned not to judge others for what they stand up for. Because God has called each person to a different stand and a different life. I would never presume to know what God wants for a person outside of wanting each and every Christian to be pure of heart and totally surrendered to God's will, humble.
So, which way should we go? The way that causes other's to be mad at us and hurt us but could lead someone to a closer walk with God or out of possible sin or just hug them and let God deal with it?
People have suggested to me that I should seek God in something because I could be wrong. If they are wrong, it has not bothered me because I knew that God had called me to it. If they were right, I tended to get mad and defensive until I gave in to God's leading. And I love the friends so much!
*This is my 200th post!

Whew! End of the week!

This is VBS week for us, and its been a busy one! Drew and Devon were part of the drama, and they had 5 pages of drama a DAY! I'm the drama leader, so I've been running the projector for them, yes, cheating with the words on the screen. My boys are some clowns, I tell ya! They've done a great job all week, along with R, the other drama kid.
Trinity and Sam are holding up, but are definitely not cut out for such a busy day yet.
Thursday night, Donnie was at the church doing some work for the worship team and then helping a church member get some computer work done, and it was getting LATE. He wasn't home yet at 11pm, so I figured he'd not only be hungry, but probably was ending up alone with the woman from church, so I ran some pizza up there. I got one block from home and stopped at a stop sign. I went through east ahead of a car heading north. They ended up turning east after me. They had two lights on the bottom of their bumper, but one was burned out. They followed me to main street and turned with me to the right. They followed me all the way through town and turned left at the light with me. The only thing that direction that late at night is the grocery store. But why would they have been heading north to turn south? Doesn't make sense. But they followed me PAST the store out of town. Hmm, weird. Then they turned with me to toward the church. I'm getting more than a little weirded out. This is out in the country, and they wouldn't be heading to our church at 11pm, its locked up. So I turn into the church, sure they are going to turn into the trailer park across the street or head on down the road. Nope, they follow me into the church parking lot! Oh, yes they did! I went around back to the side where my dh is parked, and they did not follow me that far. I sat there with the lights out but engine running so I could take off if I needed to. They didn't come around. What could have possessed someone to do that? I was pretty freaked out.
My fridge started to die, the freezer seemed to die, then it started back up, froze up really solid, then made some ice and then it started to melt again. We cleaned under the fridge in the coils, we defrosted it completely when we were without power for 2 days........ Its 8 years old, but still, why wouldn't it just die or not die? Could it be freon, or is it a warning that I'm about to have to pull $800+ out of my butt?
Thankfully I DO have a job lined up for next week, but its only a temp. I'm doing the church secretary position for a few days. But not going to buy me a new fridge with that.
I wish my brain worked, because I had more to blog but can't think of it.
Earlier this week we went swimming at some one's house. Trinity took a bit of a dunking and decided pools are evil and screamed a scream of pure torture. And we are no longer planning to swim this summer, lol. Sam loved it, though.
Oh, Trinity was funny tonight. I went to put her to bed, got her dressed in jammies and got her a drink and tucked her in. She was drinking (yes, I'm a bad mom and let her drink milk in bed at night) and I was telling her good night and "I love you" and she pulls the cup out of her mouth, and I think she's going to say I love you, too, but what she does is to lift her other hand and give a princess on a float wave to me. It was so cute!
Sam did somethings that make me worry that he's going to be a pill very soon. He's crawling and pulling himself up on furniture now at 7 months old. So he finds a spoon on a table and decides to crawl around with it, oh, and to stick it in the fan. Yep, that makes a funny noise! When we take that joy away from him, he decides to search for more fun things to play with and pulls a phone charger cord out from under the loveseat and eats it. Its plugged in. He starts crying. I don't see how he can be shocked from that, so I make Devon test it in his mouth. Yep, you CAN, indeed, get shocked from that, lol. Poor boy! But as I was comforting him, he reached onto my computer desk and went for another cord. Not real bright, that boy.

Thursday Thirteen #22

Thirteen Things about Lisa13 reasons I need a job 1. I have 7 kids. Kids are expensive! We are pretty frugal about buying new clothes and things, but it still adds up. 2. We made a blunder on our mortgage payment LAST JUNE and they "just" figured it out and are expecting us to pay up on their mistake, which we thought was fixed. 3. Our dryer died. (hanging clothes is actually great for my cloth diapers, but I will need it by winter) 4. Our fridge is dying and/or dead. Seems dead, but I heard it start running a little bit ago. The water dripping out of the freezer from the melting ice was a big indicator, though. (AFTER I posted this, the fridge started running, and now the freezer is running great! Go figure!) 5. Our roof leaks when it rains hard, just the flat part of our roof, but it needs to be replaced, and now the ceiling needs fixing, too. 6. A shingle blew off the sloped part of our roof this week. I'm guessing that means that part of the roof needs replacing, too. 7. Property taxes. They keep raising them! 8. Insurance. Homeowners is expensive all at once, and between us having 3 vehicles and two teen drivers, well, you can imagine its close to half our mortgage! Drew alone is $1600 a year. 9. The Geo needs some work. A new muffler. Find out why it overheats sometimes but not others. Why does it shake when we go over 35mph? 10. Donnie is going to need a new commuter car soon, but thankfully his car will be paid off in a few months. 11. Sports. I want the kids in more sports and activities, but I just can't swing it. $90 for one sport, $120 for that one, and then multiply that by the 5 kids in school. Well, how do I pick which kids I love more than others and let them join and fooey on the rest? Or do I just deny them all? Devon NEEDS it because it seems to help his brain injury, and even if that isn't what is going on, when he is in sports he is nicer to everyone, either because he isn't home, or because he comes home so tired he passes out, but either way he isn't picking on anyone. 12. Oh, we'd like to eat. Kids eat a lot. Even when you have rules about kids asking before they eat something, they eat me out of house and home without asking me. 13. The second computer needs a new processor and I hate sharing my computer with 6 kids! If we each ONLY get 2 hours a day on here, well that's 14 hours on the computer! We need another one by September when we'll have Cody in internet school all day. With 5 kids in school, they frequently need the internet for research, and if there aren't 2 computers, fights over whose homework is more important start. And there you have it. Only 13 of the reasons I am turning in applications. Electricity and gas and water are nice, too. The price of gas for our cars is a factor, too.

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Wordless Wednesday #10

What are these things???

I took this video, and I wasn't afraid of the bugs, I am just a BAD photographer/videographer. Still haven't figured it out though!

Concert

Stasis Dei was awesome last night! They played with Superchick last night in our little town for a free concert. My kids were just in heaven!
Stasis Dei is in the top 3 for Lifest, please help them stay up there and get in by voting for them! Its really easy, follow the link, register, confirm your email (they send an email instantly) then search Stasis Dei, and listen to both of their songs, and give them 5 stars, of course!
Thanks to those of you who have voted for them, and if you would leave a note, I'd love to hear who voted for them!

Sweet 16!

Happy birthday, Kaytlin!

Today my daughter turns 16, sweet 16! It also is her "golden birthday."

Kaytlin was a planned child, we (I) wanted another child so much, and I was overjoyed to be pregnant with her. It was rough, I was very, very sick because she was a package deal, so twice as many hormones. Her sister Abigail died in their third month. Kaytlin hung in there, through 6 months of premature labor.

We were living in Germany. Kaytlin was born June 16, 2:05 am on Father's Day in Kusel, Germany after 4 days of very hard labor. Is it any wonder that my first words after her birth were "Happy Father's Day, now get her out of my face!"???

Kaytlin loved her daddy more than she did me that first morning. She screamed whenever I held her, it was a struggle to even nurse her. She would scream for Donnie to burp her. Donnie was tired and eventually needed to go home to sleep and get Drew. He could hear her screaming all the way down the hall until the elevator doors shut.

After that, she wouldn't forgive him for leaving her there, so for four months he couldn't hold her. She would even wake up if he tried to hold her in her sleep.

Kaytlin was very fussy for a long time, we think she felt like she was missing a part of herself because Abigail did not live. For the first year Kaytlin did not sleep in the crib. She only slept if I was holding her.

At about 3yo she finally came out of it. And there was much rejoicing!

Kaytlin was a very sweet young girl. If she told a lie, or just didn't tell something she had done, she couldn't sleep until she came and confessed. Very tender-hearted.

Now Kaytlin is such a mature young lady. Yes, she does back talk a bit, but other than that we really have no complaints about her. She loves the Lord and is waiting on God to bring her a husband, rather than shopping around for one. She does not see the point in dating in high school when you are not in the market for marriage. She wants her first kiss to be with the only man she'll be with.

Its only by the grace of God that she is so mature and Godly, because we mess up all the time.

We are so proud of Kaytlin! She's learning to play the guitar and is starting to play with the youth worship team. She's beautiful inside and out. She cannot wait until she gets her driver's licence, but she needs a job first. She has great friends, showing her wonderful taste! She also works very hard to get good grades, and we are continually proud and amazed.

I'm crunchy, and a little crazy....

Drew, Kaytlin and I were driving home last night and we were talking about the new grocery store. Its a bigger, "better" version moved to a new spot in town. I hate it with a passion. I'd rather shop Super Walmart, its that aggravating to shop there. I said that I think they put brighter lights in there to purposely make people aggravated and angry because when you are angry you want to eat crunchy foods, and then you'll buy chips and stuff, which is a big money-maker.

Kaytlin said "Mom, you are SO crunchy." Huh? "You are, you're a hippy! All conspiracy theory and stuff."

Ok, so I DO cloth diaper and I DO have some conspiracy theories, but I don't buy organic or wear tie-dye, lol. And where did she hear the word "crunchy?"

It was Karaoke night again! I did just what I said I would, I sang "I Think We're Alone Now" even though Donnie did not go. (he went to the new Fantastic Four movie) Drew even got up and sang some songs. I sang several songs! I know, I'm pretty sure I'll be asked not to come next week, unless they want me to bring Trinity back, she was a riot! Sarah got Anna and I to go up and sing "I'm just a gigolo" with her because she wanted to hear it. So we get up there to sing and she just stares at the screen. Then she leaves us up there! Anna and I do not sing. She did not know the song, thought it was some other song, and left us to sing it. We'll be getting her back next month, we will. But we did sing "We are Family" after that, and she didn't leave us that time.

Trinity was laying on the floor staring at Sarah singing, it was so cute! She's her little fan! Then she started dancing. Later she was sitting on a couch and playing air guitar, rocking out, totally oblivious to us laughing at her cuteness. Later she even got really brave and got on stage and sang Twinkle Twinkle all by herself! It was too darling! But the air guitar was too sweet! I wish I had my camera with us!

Today is Kaytlin's 16th birthday! Her sweet 16 and her golden birthday. Where did my baby go? I'll post about her later, when its more "today" than it is at midnight.

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday, Cody! I couldn't do it on his birthday, you know, no power, but hey, better late than never, right?

This is Cody and his littlest siblings. He is so nice and cuddly! He had to learn, he was not very cuddly to Trinity, and for many months Cody thought she hated him because she'd cry when he held her. He learned how to deal with a baby and now he is comfortable with them and they like him a bunch!

Twelve years ago we lived in Germany. Wow, 12 years! Cody was not a "surprise" baby, but he was our first baby in trusting God for our family size. And he happened right away. We moved from Germany when I was about 7 months pregnant. That was Cody's only plane ride. Cody was born in Minnesota. That was his claim to fame in our family for a long time. We did not know he was a boy before he was born, but when he was born and they said "Its a boy" I was thinking "of course its a boy! Oh, yeah, we didn't know that." I just knew.

Cody is a video game nut, he'll play any and all things electronic. He's the one we call down to put the computers together, move cords or reconnect things. He has a future in this stuff!

Cody is starting his last year of not being a teen. He thinks this means he is now a "big kid" and should not have a bed time, etc. even though they had to wait until they were older to be a "big kid."

(this will be a long week of posting, Kaytlin turns 16 and its Father's day this weekend!)

Power's back!

The power is back on, less than 48 hours. No big deal. It got a little stuffy last night, but otherwise we survived just fine.

We were able to cook, just not in the oven, because its electronic ignition. The burners worked fine. The grill worked. But we just sent meat over to my friend's house and ate supper over there with her. It was fun! They have a projector that makes movies the size of a wall, the kids had lots of fun pretending to be at a theater.

Lots of playing in the kiddie pool.

There was no baby making, Yofed! Um, besides the fact that the kids slept with us the second night, with no power the house is QUIET and you can hear everything, like little squeaks in the floor boards I didn't even know were there, lol.

Devon is getting better, but as his steroid level goes down his hives start coming back. If they get bad again we'll have to do something because we have VBS on Monday and he is one of the main characters all week, and we don't want to freak out the kids, I mean Devon would be embarrassed to go in front of everyone looking like that. He actually got worse than this picture, too. He is much better now, just hoping it stays that way.

I want to go blog hopping, but there is a line behind me to check emails, Trinity is crying to get on Barbie.com and there are clothes to wash.

Thursday Thirteen #21

Thirteen Things about Lisa 13 things you can or can't do when the power is out. 1. Blog 2. Email 3. See at night. 4. Cook. Even with a gas stove, we can't run the oven without power. 5. Watch tv 6. Stay cool. No a/c or fans 7. Bribe the kids with videos 8. Blog 9. Listen to music. 10. Charge the cell phones. 11. We CAN play "It coulda been worse...." (sit around the house and say how it could be worse than having a power outage, like someone having an accident.) 12. Can't answer the phone, because all our phones are cordless, lol. Thats a GOOD thing! 13. Keep your food cold. We've been without power since noon Wednesday. I expect them to get it up and running Friday morning, hopefully! We've done ok, we're eating at a friend's house, gotta cook up our food anyways. The kids are enjoying her enormous screen tv! I'm borrowing a computer at church to get this done. Hopefully next week I can get my 13 things you'd find in a small town parade in the Midwest done.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Wordless Wednesday #9

Two miracles at my house! Three?

I have two miracles and something that may not be a miracle, but is kinda amazing for our kids.
I can't say which kid this is because Devon would kill me, but one of my kids woke up with these hives on Saturday. After 2 days on Zyrtec he looked WORSE than this (I couldn't get him in front of a camera again, I had to tell him this pic was for the doctor, hehe) and I took him in. At that point his face had white areas in the middle, big areas, not pimple like things. The doctor so kindly fit us in when all the docs were booked solid! He's the best! Dr. F walks in and says "Whoa, that's quite a look your sporting there!" He calls in a second opinion within 2 minutes of being in the room. They think its a reaction to a virus or medicine (which he's not on) and there is nothing you can do, basically its not hives. But I had him look at other places and they ARE hives. He really wanted to help Devon get better, so he took a long shot on some steroids working. Devon had to take 8 steroids yesterday! Like the kid isn't buff enough! Devon fought me about going to the doctor, he did not want to go, he'd get better on his own, they can't do anything anyway, its too expensive, we don't have the money..... I was really afraid he might actually bite me! All the way home he was growly, "I just want to go home and SULK." So he did.
But this morning. This morning!!! 8:15am, and ungodly hour of the morning for Devon, he shows up in my door way grinning at me like the Cheshire cat! I'm blind, so I can just tell its Devon by the buffness, and I think he's grinning by the glare of the morning sun shining off his teeth. "What?!?" "Look! Its almost gone!" I grab my glasses for that one! Whoa! Seriously! Its almost gone!
Dr. F was so sweet he even called at 8:30 in the morning to check on Devon! (and I was thinking of switching doctors! Pwsaaa! Donnie can hate him, I still love Dr. F!)
VBS is saved! Devon is a main character and I was going to have to find someone else to play his part, 5 page scripts PER DAY.

Now, the REALLY amazing miracle! I can't remember the last time we've had a P00P incident at our house! Not even a p00py pants! I can't remember!!! (that means its been at least 2 weeks, because I can't remember beyond that)

And the iffy miracle, but still amazing for our house...... I realized the other day that out of our 7 kids, you have to exclude Sam because he is only 7 months, so out of 6 kids, Hope-Anne has made it to 10yo without an accident that caused me to bring her to the doctor, ER, or call poison control! She has had no stitches, sprains, breaks, accidentally on purpose overdoses on meds, drank cleaning supplies, super-glued her eye open, or gotten a concussion! (accidentally on purpose was Drew purposely drinking tylenol, but not knowing it was medicine or could hurt his little body)

Why I blog.......

There is a blogging carnival hosted by Chilihead. A chance to get to know other bloggers better. Please feel free to join in! Leave your link at Chilihead's place!

How did you start blogging?
Well, I don't remember exactly, but I actually started my blog when a friend made her's to keep up with family far away, but she kinda stopped after a few posts and I'm still going! I think I had to get a blogger account to post a comment, and I just went for it.
Did you intend to be a blog w/a big following? If so, how did you go about it?
After a couple of weeks of posting and reading other blogs and feeling lonely that I didn't have readers, I decided I wanted to have readers. I'm not out to be huge, but I AM happy to be read! I got a site meter that I obsess over. I listed my blog on sites and groups, I left comments all over the place, I put people's blogs on my blog, etc. Doing memes, like Wordless Wednesday and Thursday Thirteen, are big reader draws.
What do you hope to achieve or accomplish with your blog? Have you been successful? If not, do you have a plan to achieve those goals?
I just want to reach out and be friends with people. I'm not sure what my "goal" is in that direction, but I like making people laugh, think, or just encourage others. I want to be real, though. I think I am successful for what I want to do, and am well on my way to what I want to see. I'm still commenting my way to get friends, lol. I would LOVE to get more comments, that's where I feel more successful, I like the numbers on my site meter, but I'd feel more connected if I had comments.
Has the focus of your blog changed since you started blogging? How?
I am still writing to an audience, but its more focused now, there are actual people TO write to, but mostly its still the same as far as day to day things that happen and the shameful things my kids do. But I do a lot more memes to get traffic.
What do you know now that you wish you'd known when you started?
I wish I had known more about memes. And the site meter, love the site meter! I would also have loved to pick a better name, great names bring in traffic. Like Boobs, Injuries, and Dr. Pepper, not that I'd pick that name, but I HAD to go see what on earth happened at that blog to get that name!
Do you make money with your blog?
Sadly, no. I had Google ads, but when I upgraded blogger it disappeared and it won't let me log in and is too much of a pain to get on my new blog. I would love to do reviews and such, but so far its just too complicated to read all the details while juggling 7 kids and a life outside of blogging.
Does your immediate or extended family know about your blog? If so, do they read it? If not, why?
Some do.
My husband doesn't have any interest unless I force him to read it.
My mom reads it every day and even prints it out, and I convinced her to start her own blog and picked out a great name for her!
My 15yo dd reads it occasionally to make sure I haven't humiliated her recently.
I think my step mom may have read it once or twice, dad, probably never. My siblings don't, either. My friends do read it a lot, and it takes away my story telling, lol. "Yes, I read that on your blog." LOL
What two pieces of advice would you give to a new blogger?
1. Pick a great name!
2. Watch what you post, because people will find out about your blog that know you. I used mine sort of like a journal and posted about a situation, even though it was not known really, it did sort of bite me, so I removed it.

Parade day!

Here is a play by play of Sam and his candy eating. I sat him in the chair while I sat in front of him on the ground. (Thats my house behind us, we live right on the parade route!)

I was storing the candy in a cup holder in the chair.
Sam was able to just reach in and help himself. And he did.

Again and again.

Yummy! Is anyone looking at my candy?

Which one should I choose?

MMMM, yah, this one is good stuff!




As you can see, it got darker and darker as the parade went on. There were only 4 marching bands this year, or it would have really gone on long! We even got a "show" right in front of our faces, all we saw was butts, but we did get a front row seat, lol. I'm going to do my Thursday Thirteen on the weird things you'll see in a small Minnesota town parade. Thankfully this year the toilette on the trailer wasn't there. And the guy sitting on the toilette reaching in and throwing out unwrapped chocolate bars....... well, he wasn't there this year. Would have made good bloggy material though! Too bad I wasn't blogging last year.

Hopefully we are at the end of the sickies, Donnie and Trinity are throwing up today, so that should be the end of it, unless the three who've been sick but not thrown up decide to finish it up in style. Cuts down on groceries, though! And at a time when we are broke, its just peachy! Some of our groceries will stretch over into the next paycheck. I even premade lots of meals, they are in the freezer waiting to be made. I was on top of frugality this month!

Garage Sale Day 2

Day two went much, much better! I felt just well enough to sit outside, but getting up and moving caused light-headedness. I even ate a little bit.
I sold $169.20 worth of stuff! I don't get to keep it all though, I sold Devon's drums and he's going to buy a guitar with it. But, our neighbor bought the drums, so we still get to hear it.
Devon slept all night Thursday night, almost all day Friday, all Friday night, and almost all day today. He broke out all over in itchy hives! I think he's allergic to a stray dog we found yesterday. The dog took off before we could find his owner, though.
Everything is packed up in the garage waiting for next week's sale. It is supposed to rain, though, so it may have to wait another week.
Everyone has gone through the sickies, so hopefully we'll all be better in a couple of days. Sam was throwing up last night, too. Trinity is the only one who hasn't gotten sick at all.
Drew cleaned out the garage in order to have a video game Olympics this weekend. They were still playing at 8am! I don't think they'll be going tonight, lol.
Hmm, have I hit everything and been jumping around enough in this post?

Garage Sale Day 1.

I spent all of day one in bed. I couldn't sleep last night, even though I was BEAT, because I felt so sick. Around 1am I threw up, and other just as unpleasant things, then I could at least sleep. Kaytlin came in around 5am asking for a bucket because she had thrown up, too. 5:30am, get up and change underwear. 6:45am call Jody and tell her I am sick, but she can still have the sale at our house if she wants to run things. She did.
8am start putting out as much as possible while trying not to vomit. Unsuccessful.
I spent the day mostly in bed. Sam slept almost all day with me, after he threw up on my milk maker. I'm not sure if he was sick or not, but it really helped having him sleep the day away. Donnie was home, because he doesn't feel well for the second day in a row. He HAS to be better for work tomorrow, though.
Now our oldest son has a garage full of kids playing video games for the next two nights. Which means we have no tv to curl up with in our misery. But at least they are outside!
Oh, and so far I made about $6 max, lol. I need to get some more of our items out tomorrow, like desks and end tables and my rocking chair.
I'm missing Ladies Night for the first time. I'm so sad! I love getting together with my girlfriends and laughing the night away. Sarah can't make it, either. So, Jody and Jeannie and whoever else shows up, it changes each month.

Lest you think I exaggerate....

These are the un-matched shoes. Even though some LOOK matched, they were not the same size, lol. This was after matching 14 pairs or so. This is also not all the unmatched shoes, Some are behind Cody and some are in a box already put away.

Our town parade was tonight. It goes right past our house, so we always get a great seat! Here is how much Sam liked it. I'll have to post more about it another day because I'm soooo tired and I have to get up early in the morning.

Thursday Thirteen #20

Thirteen things I found in my garage while getting it cleaned for a yard sale.

1. A Tupperware soup bowl with scary stuff on the side, and it was heavy, indicating that something was inside. (our kids cleaned Donnie's car and instead of bringing everything in the house, they put it in a trash bag and put it in the garage!)
2. A Footloose soundtrack tape! My kids didn't want me to play it. (plus about 50 tapes from Quixtar business)
3. 12 missing screwdrivers.
4. A disposable camera that hadn't been developed yet. (that should be interesting!)
5. A Pampered Chef rubber scraper that I have been missing for 2 years! It was in the camping stuff.
6. The book "Stone Soup" which gives us all a giggle.
7. A box of letters that I had written to my dad when we lived far away. In one letter I was describing to my dad how we were watching a video he sent of their Christmas and Drew said "That's a silly grandpa, he's got no hair!"
8. A little ceramic shoe with a pink base with my name and birth date on it.
9. My wedding invitation, napkins, and bulletin.
10. Spiders. Umm, I hate spiders. But I didn't scream even once! That is an amazing feat for me, because a spider touching me could send me to a therapist. (or more likely for the vicodin and a nap after my screaming and crying jag.)
11. Tons and tons and tons of outgrown clothes that I have planned to donate, go through, get out for summer/winter, the next baby.....
12. Tons and tons and tons of shoes, boots, skates. (I can't believe we have that many pairs in the garage since we have WAY too many in the house that we don't even wear.)
13. A bunch of toys we haven't played with in a long time!

And I'm not even close to clean in there. I could do many more TT's on this. And I saved you all from the horror by not taking pics. The soup bowl had refried beans in it. Or it looked like it, but the dead bugs in there could have made something else look like that??? It was scary, I tell you!
***UPDATE***
We turned in 55lbs of cans and made $45!!!! So even if we don't make much in the yard sale, we'll have a cleaner garage and at least $45!