Can't Hurt to Try...

Cool contest I found to win free groceries for a year

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Mutiny

Apparently, suggesting the possibility of having something other than homemade pizza for "Stay-Up-Late-Basketball-Friday" is grounds for severe punishment by my three male family members.

Heaven forbid we consider anything else for dinner. What was I thinking?

Need something light to read now.

I just finished House by Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti. And I'm shocked that I even finished it. Not by lack of quality in the writing, but more because it's a horror movie in written form. Seriously. And I don't do horror movies.

Had this been a movie (it actually might be, I thought I caught that somewhere), I don't think I could have even watched the previews. But does it really surprise you coming from Dekker and Peretti? Yikes.

It did keep me reading and made me want to finish to see how to ends. I had to keep trying to get my head around the idea of a Christian fiction book with so many evil, scary elements included.

I know there are s.c.a.r.y elements to the spiritual world. I mean, that's where "scary" started, right? But reading about it.... phew... not again for a while.

Looking Back: Tickle Me AJ

Remember This??

My Brut was just a giggling baby

AJ the Brut

Notice AJ's black eye and fat lip?? They are the result of two completely separate incidents of him hurting himself. Don't worry, though, it was nothing a cookie (eye) or popsicle (lip) couldn't solve.On side note, this week we attended preschool open house and officially registered AJ for the fall. It's the same preschool that we sent Andrew to and we were pleased with the program.

We had been talking up preschool to AJ before the open house.... this to the kid who would be totally happy staying in his jammies all day and never leaving the house. He's our homebody. AJ told us several times he was not interested in going to preschool.

So we were really hoping that the open house would change his mind. Plus, his good buddy (and fellow kiddo I watch), Noah, will also be attending the same class. Noah and AJ seemed to have a great time at the Open House. AJ was happy to play with all the toys... not too interested in talking to his future teacher...but I think overall, it worked. The last couple days he seems excited about it and has even asked us when he gets to go.

Come next fall I will be putting on the hat of Mom's Taxi service.

Learning the New Testament

Book Report: The Midnighter's Series (3 Books)

I recently read and finished another series by Scott Westerfeld. Another set of Sci-Fi books (what is wrong with me?). I really didn't have any other books lined up to read and had already read the Uglies series by Westerfeld not too long ago.

Anyway, this was another set of good, but not great, books... Fine enough to keep me plugging through the series, but ready to move on to something new.

My Boys are Animals!

I mentioned before that my boys received wonderful homemade costumes for Christmas from a family friend. They love them!

Happy New Year: Take II

What a downer of a post my last New Years one was, eh? We actually did have a quite a nice New Year's Eve & New Year's Day. In face the whole week and a half leading up to them was pretty awesome, too.

We headed down to Ohio before Christmas and stayed there through Sat. spending Christmas's with my parent's and both my mom's & dad's side of the families. We were spoiled. Thank you.

But then.... only Marc and I came back up. We left the kiddos in Ohio with Grandma & Papa. For a whole week! And while I really missed them (come Tuesday and I was ready to head back down to hug them), we had a really nice time just being a couple again for a while.

Sunday we hit Qdoba for a Buy One Get One lunch. We hit the cheap theater for a movie, then did Buy One Get One bowling. Just the two of us! We ended the evening picking back up where we left LOST: Season Four. (Using coupons and not paying a sitter makes for a cheap date!)

Monday we unpacked and cleaned up the whirlwind house from traveling. We met other friends at Chili's for Fajita Night and headed back to their place for cards.

Tuesday, I had to work, but we met up with friends later in the evening to hang out a bit.

Wednesday, I still watched my other boys, who did amazing considering their buddies were missing. We ran a few errands in the evening before the big splurge... sharing a meal at Red Lobster. (We saved money on the all the grocery shopping we didn't do this week, right?)

New Year's Day was a mostly free day... we ran a few more errands and worked around the house during the day. Some friends came over for appetizers in the evening before we all headed out for the night. We attempted to go bowling after our fun earlier in the week. But apparently NYE is a huge bowling night and we needed reservations. We got Chinese for dinner before heading downtown for the Rosa Parks New Year's Eve Party... complete with lighted ball drop.

Yes, it was cold, and yes it was crowded, and loud, and filled with teens, but it was a lot of fun! I think the guess was 30,000 people were there. I tried to get some pictures, but they really don't do it justice.

New Year's Day we slept in. I then packed up and headed back down to Ohio to get the boys. Marc was headed to MN with a buddy to watch the Vikings & Giant's play. I really should write a separate post about the game because Marc has not stopped talking about how a.w.e.s.o.m.e it was.

Anyway, I got to Ohio just in time to hug the boys and we all loaded up and head to a New Years Party with family friends. The boys got the most adorable outfit/costumes as gifts and we just had a nice visit. I'll try to get some pictures posted... they are so cute!

Saturday was pretty lazy and I liked it that way. Sunday, I packed up in the morning and brought the boys home.... to no power in the house. It was so cold! I used the few hours left of daylight to unpack and get as much stuff ready for the next day as possible.

When we were left to just candlelight I decided to pack the boys up and take them somewhere warm for dinner, figuring if the power was still out when we got back, we would move all fridge/freezer food to the back deck and start calling friends to see where we can crash for the night.

However, just as we were getting into the car to head to dinner, the power came back on, praise God. We still ran out and grabbed a Little Ceaser pizza since I had already told the boys we were going, but we just brought it back to eat it while watching Funniest Home Videos. (Which by the way is where Andrew wants to go on vacation.)

So, we really were blessed to have a very nice Christmas vacation. One where we were able to unwind, not think too much, de-stress, relax, enjoy family, friends, and remember the True Reason for Christmas.

Eat my Words... Major Praise Alert!

I am sorry about the last post. I was in a crummy mood when I wrote it. Yesterday was one of those day when nothing seems to go right, plus everything that we tried to forget about over the holidays came crashing back to the surface like unemployment, bills, insurance issues, etc... y'know life.

Also our car battery was dead. We knew it was dying, but hadn't had a chance to replace it with all the holiday traveling. Well, yesterday, Marc went to change it out and accidentally dropped the wrench connecting the positive and negative "terminals" (I have no idea was those are called.) Major sparks flew and the car was officially dead. We were told we probably fried our computer. ($$$). Thankfully we have AAA and had it towed. One.More.Thing.

We had no idea what to expect as far as cost, but minimum would be $90 just to have the repair shop look at it and that's after dropping $90 for the new battery. Marc shuttled everyone around today (Andrew and myself to and from school & work respectively) and we stopped at the repair shop to check the damages.

As Marc went in, the boys and I prayed in the car again for a good report. Marc came back out, hopped the car, and drove over to us. Apparently, when the repair men went to assess the problem, the car started right up! They didn't charge us anything!! Oh thank you Lord.

I have to confess how I needed this miracle. And not just for the sake of not paying money. God is good in spite of myself.

Happy New Year

Well, I would like to say Good Riddance, 2009... bring on 2010. But today, only the 4th day into the year and it was one of those no good days already. Reality smacked us in the face and then spit on us for good measure.

So rather than get angry like Marc could have done or cried like I wanted to do, we packed a quick sandwiches to eat in the car and headed to Toys R Us with a purpose. We were blessed with a gift card from there, so we bought Monopoly and headed back home.

We all put our jammies on early, Marc popped popcorn, and we played/taught Andrew (AJ was there... but not much teaching was going on) Monopoly. We didn't even get near finished before the boys bedtime, but we packed up each person's money, property's & game piece in their own ziptop bag. We noted whose turn it was and where each player ended so we can resume another time.

I think Andrew enjoyed it, but truthfully, I think the game was more for Marc and I tonight. Lord, please shine your face upon us in 2010.