Mark informed me yesterday that the Yellow Wiggle, Greg Page, was sick and may have to stop being a member of the Wiggles. I waited until I got more official news of the situation before I posted about it. It saddens me deeply to discover today that Greg is leaving the Wiggles . We have been Wiggle fans since Emma was about two. Attending a concert in August of 2003 in St. Louis and also one in May of this year here in Kansas City. Greg has a health condition that while not life threatening causes him to be unable to dance and sing. He will be leaving the Wiggles and handing over Yellow Wiggle duty to Sam Moran who has been his understudy. You can watch Greg's announcement on video . From us to you Greg, we hope you get better and we have loved seeing you with the Wiggles. Take care of yourself.

Okay y'all, I am freezing my arse off today. Holy night. Our computer room is in the back room of the house and it sits between two windows. Two 100+ old windows. Can you say drafty? Maybe I should get a lap top and have wireless net. I do not think Santa will be bringing that my way this year. Anyway, quick post as my arse is half frozen now. And with as big as it is, I am not sure how long it will take to thaw back out. Tonight, my friends, marks a special occasion. Scrubs is back for Season Six. I LOVE me some Scrubs. It is the only t.v show that I own the first two seasons on DVD. I can catch reruns now on a couple different channels too. I simply love this show. Tonight J.D. tries to come to grips with being a father. Blue Man Group guests as well. So for today's Love Thursday I am giving my love to Scrubs. Now that it is on Thursday nights, it gives a whole new meaning to Love Thursday. The Office is also on tonight. Must see t.v is back y'all. Happy Love Thursday.

As we are planning our annual Girl's Night Out Christmas Shindig, one of the girls will not be able to make it. She lives a couple hours away and it is obviously not always easy to run up here. Plus, she has a baby. Anyway, through our e-mail correspondents yesterday, figuring out what to do and what to bring and all of that, Katie mentioned she would have an editorial in the paper she works for about turning 30 and having girlfriends. Back in August, Denise and I took Katie out for dinner. While at dinner, both Denise (who turns 30 in January. The 15 to be exact.) and I lamented about how awful it was to have that looming in our very near future. Katie, who had just turned 29 in July, was not on board. What was the big deal about turning 30, she wondered. Ah, my friend who has JUST turned 29 had not been hit yet. Sure, in lots of ways, we are still young. I know that. We can still get up off the floor. We can still have a couple drinks with the girls. Some of us, it seems, can st

Yesterday as I was bringing up the Christmas decor, I noticed that the highchair was still out. I noticed it because it was sitting near the door to the basement and I was carrying up box after box of Christmas stuff and the highchair was taking up a lot of space. Space I needed. After my fourth trip up and down and staring at the highchair, glaring at the space it was using, I realized something. We have not used that for many months. Maybe even a year now. It is the same one we bought when Emma was only a few months old. We invested in a Peg Perego one, blue and yellow checked cover. I really liked that chair. I cleaned it up when it was time for Davis to use it. With four years between them, it had been stored for a while before it was needed again. Yesterday, I looked at that chair and realized something. It was time to put it away. I moved the seat down, folded up the tray and then folded the entire highchair up. I picked it up and carried it to the basement to store w

The Holidays are officially here. I decorated the house for Christmas today. Only the inside. I need Mark to help me rig up the lights for outside. The kids helped decorate the tree. It looks a little whoopy , but they had fun doing it themselves so I let them go at it. I hung all my lights around my windows in the living room too. I even threw out an entire box of old decorations and things that were broken. I did really well this year. Emma's tree is up and the lights are going on it in her room. My little tree is up and going in the dining room. Davis's poor tree needs new lights. I will get them soon for his tree. Christmas photos have been taken and ordered. Most of the shopping is complete. Not too much longer and it will be Christmas.

My Emmaline.....

Back in January, for Davis's second birthday my sister redid his room. From baby to big boy. My sister, Kiki, has an eye for doing these sorts of things. To see the results of her work on Davis's room you can click here to view them. I had wanted to redo Emma's room for her birthday as well, back in March. We thought about finishing off the other half of our attic and moving the kids upstairs, so I waited. Then we thought about moving, so I put it off once again. I finally decided that it was time to fix it up some. I started looking for new window coverings. And lo and behold a few weeks ago I found some Hello Kitty shower curtains (fabric) on sale at Target. They had the matching shower hooks on sale as well and we were off for a new look for Emma's room. I put in a call to my decorator, the one and only Kiki and the pieces came together. Today, Kiki and Uncle Patrick descended on Emma's room and worked their magic. After a few weeks of preparation and a few hou

I recently found a friend of mine on MySpcae. I have known her since I was in the second grade. A loooong time, by far. Her name is Randi and she is a writer and an English teacher. She has published a book of her poetry. I have ordered my copy and it is on it's way to me. Randi started Urban Literation here in Kansas City. If you click here you can go read one of her poems. If you are interested in more, you can go to Lulu and buy her book, sweet.water.horizon . If you are a fan of poetry, you might want to check it out. I know Randi would appreciate it!

We were up and at Wally World at five o'clock this morning. We hit more stores, sales ,and the mall before taking in breakfast around nine this morning. We rested, ate some lunch and then headed back out late this afternoon into the evening. Needless to say, no long post or pictures or anything tonight. Just hoping everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I know ours was the best one yet.

Today lots of families will come together for Thanksgiving. Some will celebrate with turkey, some with ham, some with chicken. Some will celebrate with potatoes. Some with stuffing. Some with cranberry sauce. Some will celebrate with twenty, thirty or more people. Some will celebrate with only a few. Some have no one to celebrate with. Today I am thankful, just to be here. To have my husband, whom I love more than anything. To have my kids, who are the light in my life. To have food on my table and a roof over my head. Today I am just thankful that I got to spend another year here on this earth. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; ~Ephesians 5:19-20~ May everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. And may your life be filled with an abundance of blessings. Happy Thanksgiving!

Yes, I am one of those people who gets up the day after Thanksgiving and goes shopping. It has become a ritual with Mark and I and I think we just like the time together. Or maybe that is only me. I am also one who would marry Target if I could. I LOVE me some Target. Not only the store itself but I love their community outreach work. They have the Target House for kids at St. Jude's. They are partnering with Salvation Army to give $1 million this year. You can go to their Community Page to read more about what they do. Now, they have the one and only David Blaine working for them. Check this out. Go read the story behind it y'all. And then go shop at Target. **And before anyone asks, Target gave me the HTML code to paste into my blog, I myself did not know how to do it.**

One of the advantages to getting up early, is getting the blessing of watching the sunrise. It is winter here now. Frost on the windows and grass in the morning. Snuggling up with blankets on the couch in the evening. Warm cups of hot tea or cocoa. With Thanksgiving only two days away and Christmas only thirty-three days away, indeed winter is upon us.

Quick post today. Emma is having growing pains. At least that is what I think they are and she is in some pain. I am waiting for the doctor to give me a call back now. Here is Davis looking at a photo album of pictures of himself. Yes that picture of the baby in the album is of my boy from two years ago. Sad, isn't it?

I am not a dog person. Mark insisted on getting Emma a dog for her second birthday. He went to Wayside Waifs and put in an application on a puppy. I had refused to go knowing that I would want to bring home a whole army of pets. Mark's only stipulation was to get a smallish dog. My mistake. We got approved for the dog. It was a Labrador Retriever and Brittany Spaniel mix. We went to pick her up....and she was already big. That was almost five years ago and Isabelle still resides in our home. All 50ish pounds of her chocolate Lab/Brittany Spaniel glory. This dog is not normal. She never has been. Izzy lays on HER couch and she prefers to lay her precious head on the pillow. And the dog snores. And she runs in her sleep. She provides Mark and I with a lot of entertainment in the evenings as we sit on the other couch watching t.v. and periodically making fun of the dog. Isabelle is easy like Sunday morning. Oh yeah, she is easy like Sunday morning...

In my mindless fluff post for the week..... I think that now that Britney Spears is divorcing K-Fed, Justin Timberlake will take her back. He has been with Cameron Diaz for a long time (three or four years I think) and nothing? I believe he is still in love with Britney. And to further support my claim, I will also say that I think that Justin Timberlake's new song My Love was written with Brit-Brit in mind. Go read the lyrics . Now, if I wrote you a love note And made you smile with every word I wrote (what would you do?) Would that make you want to change your scene And wanna be the one on my team (tell me, would you?) See, what's the point of waiting anymore? Cause girl I've never been more sure (that baby, it's you) This ring here represents my heart And everything that you've been waiting for (just say "I do") Hmmmm.....change your scene? And if Timberlake wrote T.I's rap lyrics as well? Not to mention how many times it is said that no other girl

Mark has long made fun of me for arguing on the net. I moved on from some boards. Most of them are parenting and child related. I used to spend time on a board that debated circumcision. For the record I am AGAINST infant circumcision and it was a lot like banging your head into a brick wall arguing there. I quit going to that board. I also spent a lot of time at another debate board. I have since not spent as much time there. First, it was because it was no longer really relevant to my life anymore. My kids are getting older. Then, it was that it was taking too much of my time. Time that could be spent elsewhere. But lately something new has occurred to me. I do not spend much time there because everyone seems to be set in their ways. They are too busy listening to themselves to hear what other people are saying. If you do not go along with or agree with the overall tone and beliefs of the board, then they do not hear a word you say. I am one of the people who does not

I met with my girlfriends last Friday night. These are the girls that I have known for years. And by years, I mean pretty much since the sixth grade. If you are counting, that makes it about eighteen years. These are my GIRLS. We did a wine and snack night. We brought wine and snacks and sat down around Denise's table with our yummy snacks and delicious wine to do what else? Shoot the shit as I like to say. GNO ~ Girl's Night Out~ usually consists of a few things. One, food. Two, drinks baby. Three, gossip. Yes we know it is wrong but we can not help ourselves okay. Four, confessions and actual deep conversation. And last week was no exception. My posse consists of Denise, my bestest friend of eighteen years. Denise is the true love of my life. She is awesome and there are not enough words to describe her. Honestly. Denise is the kind of friend who there is not an adequate way to describe her. Shannon, whom I have also known for eighteen years. She worked on the yearbook with

Yes indeed. In a mere three weeks I will be turning thirty. Um, just a moment, @#*%$#@@#*()(&%$#% Okay, I am better now. I am not looking forward to it. I have made several different posts on turning thirty. Hell, I even have a whole label called Getting Older . Getting old sucks. My body does not work in the way it once did. In SOOOO many ways. I can not tolerate the food I once was able to (Toxic Hell at midnight is a definite no no). The food I do eat, hangs around on my body in a way it once did not (Hellooooooooo, fat ass). I get aches and pains much easier that I ever did. It just plan sucks. Then I thought maybe I should be more optimistic about this. I mean after all, I can not stop it from coming anymore than the Grinch could stop Christmas. I could try. But sure enough I would be holding hands with all the Who's down in Who-ville and we would be singing, "Fah who for-aze! Dah who dor-aze! Welcome Birthday, Please go away! Welcome, Welcome Fah who rah-moose. Welco

Do you ever have moments where you are reminded of something in such a harsh and raw way? What do you do when that happens? I have had that moment today. Where it feels as if something that has happened to you is being rubbed into your face. And it seems as if there is NO appropriate way to respond to it. Where it feels as if you want to kill someone and cry at the same time. This feeling of complete and utter rage while at the same time your heart is breaking into a million pieces because NO ONE seems to get it. What is that? It is not easy to pick up the pieces and move on. When something happens that destroys who you are as a person and you try to pick it up and move on, you struggle. It does get better with time and then WHAM. That person that hurt you the first time opens that wound right back up and pours salt into it. Damn. Why? Sometimes you wonder if you made the right decision.

Sitting on the couch this morning, my boy crawled into my lap. I was still feeling a bit run down from yesterday and last night. Mark was kind enough to remind me this morning that we had Pepto in the cabinet. Thank goodness. I was resting a bit before we had to go pick up the van. We had dropped it off Saturday for an oil change and were going to go retrieve it today. I turned on the heating pad as it seems I now also have cramps. Possibly from starting yet another new birth control pill. I pulled the blanket over my lap and heating pad so my boy could sit on my lap. He hurt his finger last night messing with the dryer door and wanted me to kiss it and was saying, "I'm sorry," every time I would kiss it. I was snuggling my boy and said to him, "You are mommy's baby, aren't you?" To which he immediately replied, in his sweet little voice, "No, I not a baby." What a way to start the day. Even the chocolate doughnut I ate this morning

I am having some not so great stomach pains today. Because of that I can think of nothing I want to blog about. I mean I have ideas, lots of them, but it requires more thought and time at the computer than I have today. My stomach trouble is causing me to spend way too much time in the restroom today. So, you are going to be subjected to some more of my poetry. Sorry... heart, soul, breath, life, love, being my life without you i had never imagined then in one moment you were gone you took the love away and i stood and watched too afraid to speak too weak to move for i gave to you my heart my soul my breath my life my love my very being you had become so much a part of me that when you left that part left with you and i know that you gave a part of yourself and after you were gone that stayed with me for you gave to me your heart your soul your breath your life your love your very being and all that you gave made it harder to let go of you yet hold onto the memory and the memory is all

Lately, likely because the end of 2006 is near ( 48 days if anyone is counting), I have been reflecting on the past year. In all honesty, this has been the hardest year of my life. It was the most painful, the most difficult and the most trying. By far. Yet even with all of that, it was the easiest year of my life. For the last year, I realized finally who has been there through it all. The one who has never turned their back on me and the one who has loved me unconditionally all this time. The one who has not judged me in any way and the one who has held my hand no matter what the trial. Jesus. Sweet Jesus. If He had not been holding me up the past year I do not think I would be sitting here on this night, typing this very post. I do not know where I would be, or even if I would still be alive at this very moment if it were not for His saving grace. And that is pure, straight forward, and honest to goodness truth for you. At this point what is in my head are the lyrics to

My good friend Shannon told me last night as we were at a Girl's Night Out, that she wished I would post about something that was just mindless. Seems she thinks I get too deep on here sometimes. So here is some mindless rubble for you. I am a celebrity news junkie. I love me some People magazine. So, for this week here is my round up and favorite tidbits of celebrity "news". First I have to say I am upset at the break-up of Reese and Ryan . Now I do not care much for Ryan as he skives me a bit but I really thought they had a good thing going. Guess not. This threw me for a loop though and I did not see it coming. Second, way to go Britney . About time you got rid of K-Fed. Yuck. They say this video is when he got the news by text. Which is by far the funniest thing in celebrity gossip this week. So there you go, some mindless rubble for you to chew on. I know it is not "news" nor is it new, but it is mindless.

I let my kids play video games. Not only that, but they get to play with guns to play said video games. On the old Nintendo. The one from the 1980's. My kids love it. Davis has taken a liking to playing Duck Hunt. I do not think the game (or maybe the gun) works anymore because it seems you can not kill the ducks no matter how hard you try. But Davis loves to take hold of the gun and shoot away. Both of the kid like to sit on the TABLE to play the video games as well. The other night, Emma had already fallen asleep and Mark was out of town (AGAIN) so it was just me and my boy still up. He went over and turned on the game and I let him play for a bit. I also captured his love of killing ducks on film. Or I guess it would be digital camera now. Please no commenting on the fact that I let my kids play this. Look at his face? Could you say no? *I will say that the look of pure glee as he clutches the gun in this photo is possibly a bit alarming.....*

I was tagged by Judy a few days ago. I am finally filling it out. What is/are YOUR:Easy how-to ways to beat a bad mood? Depends. If the kids are here, running around the house screaming. If Mark is here, some t.v. and ice cream. Sometimes I just need a good cry. Never-fail lip color? Um, Blistex? Personality type (via myersbriggs )? ISFJ Greatest strengths and weaknesses (like in a job interview)? I have never been interviewed for a job so I have no idea. I am easy to talk to, but I lack an ability to look people in the eye while I am speaking. Names of the trees in your yard? Big, old, tress. I do not know what they are. Mother-in-law's favorite flower? I really have no idea. She loves the greenery of plants. I would imagine she would like any flower. And taken from Karrie , I tag anyone who is reading.

What Love Is Love is full of many colors Like a rainbow Shining through sprinkles of water Escaped from a waterfall Love can bring you cheer Like a smile Making you laugh through your tears When things aren't so smooth Love feels different Like the seasons Always changing yet remaining the same Time after time Love held inside Shared by two Feelings speaking from heart to heart Communicating together as one Love can be beautiful Like a rainbow Shining in the sky Filling the world with color Happy Love Thursday. ~~poem written by yours truly in May of 1992~~

I don't talk about my past a lot. I do mention my girlfriends I have had for years. But I do not speak much of my past. I realized it is because I want to leave it in there, behind me. I realized it is because some things were hard to get over and leave behind. Since I claimed victory in that, I do not want to go back. And Mark and I have been together for a little over ten years. My past pretty much takes me all the way back to high school. In case you never caught it, I got married when I was twenty. I did not complete college (that is a post for another day...), so I do not have any crazy college day memories. To be clear, this does not sadden me. I did college for almost two years, in all sorts of ways. Community college, away in a dorm at a large university and then back at home in a smaller university. None of them fit for me. I get that now and have no issue with it. What still affects me to this day are things that occurred in high school. I do not much go down this path an

My post from earlier was short. And for what it is worth I DID go vote and I did get the movie. I also had my yearly girly visit. I have decided there is nothing more humiliating than going to the ob/gyn for your yearly exam. First, I have to wait FOREVER at my doctor. Fine. Then, they call me back. And what do I have to do first? Step on the scale. I think the scale at the doctor is a very confused scale. Because today the nurse kept moving the things and moving them more. She finally stopped, way too late. Either my thyroid med needs tweaking or I need to go on a diet. Then, for me, it is the blood draw. For the thyroid. Off to the bathroom next for the peeing in the cup. Luckily I am so used to this that I no longer pee on my hand. Bonus. After that is when you are directed to your room. Where you are told to strip naked and put on the "easy access" gown. At my doctor's office you get to strip naked under horrific fluorescent lights in front of a huge full length mirro

Well besides the fact that today was the day that I got to have my yearly woman exam (YAY for me...right) today is the day Disney/Pixars Cars comes out on DVD. So while I say screw the elections, I will go ahead and stop by and cast my vote on my way to pick up our new movie. And just for information's sake, looks like it is projected that the Democrats will win MO this year...

As I have been thinking about what to blog for the entire month, I have realized that it is possible that I may have to write about some things that are a little deeper. Today is such a day. I have recently been thinking a lot on the other child issue. It has actually been something that has been in the forefront of my mind for some time. Life took a few detours over the summer and it was put aside and not thought of much. Then life seemed to be getting back on track, even if a different track than it was following before, and here I am. I have made a couple different posts about this very subject. As you can see from those, I am bit schizophrenic on the subject. Ask me one day and I am all about having more kids, no matter my age or when. Ask me the next day and I will look at you like you are some whack job that is trying to kill me. After some thought and some looking into myself about what this is really about, I think I finally came to a conclusion. It is not about me getting to

Yesterday we found some new black drees shoes for Emma at Target. They are cute and were really a bargain. I bought them for her and brought them home to her and thankfully they passed and fit. Today, she was getting ready for church, which we did not make it to, and put on her new shoes. She asked me if we could go ahead and keep her old black ones even though they are too little. Her new shoes are patent leather; her old ones are satin. I told her we could probably look for new ones like her old ones. She only has one pair of black dress shoes anyway. My daughter looked at me and with all seriousness said, "But we just got a new pair of black shoes. I don't need another new pair." Somebody help me. This child can not be mine. Only ONE pair of black shoes for the winter?!?! We are going to have to sit down and have a little woman to woman talk tonight about how one can NEVER own too many pairs of black shoes.

I am now officially a participant in the NaBloPoMo . What is this you ask? It is an alternative to National Novel Writing Month, otherwise known as, NaNoWriMo . The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. Since I lack focus, which some like to call adult ADD, there is no way I could do that. So, enter NaBloPoMo. Besides sounding funnier, it is a much more doable thing for me. The goal of this? Post an entry to my blog every day for the entire month of November. You heard it folks. You will be blessed with some random something from me EVERY DAY for the ENTIRE month of November. I am even on the Official List. I am, really. You can go look. Now you may be asking yourself how you got so lucky. And I can not give you the answer to that. All I can say is that you can look forward to me rambling about basically nothing for the whole month. So sit back and enjoy the ride. Now, if I could only figure out how the hell to put up my button and get it to hy

Last weekend was a crazy busy weekend. It was one of those things where, I made plans for Saturday. Then I had plans for Sunday. Then I was asked if we could do something Saturday night. Then, Sunday night. Soon our whole weekend was full. It was crazy. But one of the things on our List was to go to my husband's aunt;s house Sunday evening. Steve Saint was going to be in town talking to a church and my sister in law had invited him and his wife over for some food and talking. Now if you do not know who Steve Saint is, you can click the link and read about him. Fascinating story. He spoke at our church for a The Summit conference in September. My sister in law got me a copy of his book, End of the Spear , and had him sign it for me. That book was made into a movie. It was a great book and it was inspiring to me. Here is a man whose father was killed being a missionary. He went to the people that killed his own father and not only befriended these people, the Waodani, but lead them t

Fall is here (or is it winter?!?!) and it is getting dark early again. There is a coldness in the wind that bites right through you. Winter is not far off now. Every year I get sick when the weather changes like this. EVERY year. And this year was no exception. It requires lots of Ricola cough and throat drops, soup, hot drinks, water and NyQuil and DayQuil to get me through it. It takes a few days, for me to work it out. In the meantime, I look like something the dog barfed up and feel like something the garbage truck ran over. My poor kids get shafted during this. Luckily this year it came right during Halloween so they have plenty of candy to keep them alive. This time it has consisted of me completely losing my voice. Which I think the kids liked. All I could do was lie there defenseless as they tore apart the house. I could not yell, I could not move fast enough to catch them. All I could do was squeak occasionally and wander about the house trying to pick it up without feeling li

Let me begin this by saying I detest Halloween. Seriously. If I could skip it, I would. I will admit that I am seriously afraid of the dark. That is the first part. Second, when I was younger I was scared out of my gourd by a lady answering her door for Trick or Treaters dressed as a witch saying she was cooking little kids in a big pot down in her basement. I told Emmaline this year why I did not like Halloween and she was......not sympathetic. She told me I was PATHETIC. "Um, well if that happened to me mom, I would have known she was just joking around. I mean, it is Halloween and she was just dressing up and having fun." And yes, I was actually OLDER than Emmaline when this happened. Every since I was tiny I was not a fan of dressing up and Trick or Treating. Mark said it was because my parents always had candy and it was not a big deal. I am not sure what he meant by that. My parents did often have candy and such in my house and we were allowed it. It was not some sort o