I updated to Blogger Beta today. You can now see fun new colors to liven up the page. Also in the sidebar is a new Labels section, titled Help For The Lost. You can go there, click on a label and it will take you to posts that I put into that category and only that category. The new Blogger Beta rocks because it is much simplier to use. No more using HTML codes, just drag and click. Hope you all (if there are any of you reading this thing) enjoy the new look!

I do not usually get too religious or political or anything of that nature here. But today I have to share some tidbits. I grew up in a home where religion was not really practiced. We did not attend church or read a Bible. My mother was very open about her views and very supportive of whatever views I chose to take. My father, being a man born in the late 40's, was a fairly reserved man and did not discuss feeling much in general. The same was true for God. Not something we really discussed. The floor was open for us to form and find our own way in the land of God and religion. I began to believe in the existence of God at an early age, around six or so. I would pray to Him on occasion. I attended various churches with various friends and family members. Nothing consistent and I do not even know that they were all the same religion. I just went. By the time I was in middle school (junior high) I had many friends who attended church regularly. I attended some lock in type things, a...

He has the most beautiful eyes and the longest eyelashes. He is crazy and full of energy when he is awake. Then he rests and looks like a little angel. With his arm up by his head......Such sweetness. Sleep well my prince. One day you will no longer be my little baby. You will be a grown man. Possibly have children of your own. But we will always have this time. This time when you were my little guy and I was your everything. And truthfully, you will always be my baby. No matter what.

Last night I watched Pleasantville. I have seen the movie before, a few times even. People are always changing and I am not the same person I was when I saw the movie the first time. When I watched the movie this time, I thought more about what the movie stood for. What the point was. I got the overall idea that in the beginning everyone only seeing in black and white was not good. That there was so much more out there than just black and white. I also see it as sometimes seeing all the colors is not a good thing. The people in Pleasantville did not know what they were missing. They were content with life as it was and it was not until someone showed them all that they were missing that they began to wonder more and more what else there was. Reminds me of the Bible and the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were fine and content until they ate from the tree of knowledge. And most of us know what happened from there. After some more thought, I began to see it a different way. It is almost lik...

In My Daughter's Eyes ... See my Tabblo>

I Took His Hand and Followed ... See my Tabblo>

My husband sent me the lyrics to David Crowder Band's song Recue Is Coming. What a great reminder. It was a much needed reminder at the time. Rescue is coming......thank God. There’s a darkness in my skin My cover’s wearing thin, I believe I’d love to start again, go back to innocent And never leave Don’t give up now A break in the clouds We could be found There’s nothing wrong with me It’s just that I believe things could get better And there’s nothing wrong with love I think it’s just enough to believe Rescue is coming Rescue is coming Rescue is coming Rescue is coming And there’s nothing wrong with you And nothing left to do But believe something bigger And there’s nothing wrong with love I know it’s just enough to believe Don’t give up now A break in the clouds We will be found Rescue is coming now

I was reading today's newspaper. I usually only ever read the FYI section of the paper. The fluff and entertainment section. In the Saturday edition though they add religion in the back. I also browse through the whole section. The back page usually has some interesting reads on faith and I enjoy reading it. Today brought a very interesting find. Besides the article How We see God , which was interesting, there was a blurb across the top of the paper. It read: Rain Delay During a lightening storm at the 15-acre, $16 million Holy Land Experience biblical theme park in Orlando, Fla., park officials announced the cancellation of that day's re-enactment of the Crucifixion. HUH? Yea, I had to go look it up on the net. What is this? You have got to be kidding me. I am not sure what to make of this. Apparently the Holy Land Experience is to visit Jerusalem in Florida. Once again, HUH? It is fitted with museums and dining places and stores. You can have this Experience for the price o...

Both of my kids were given binkies when they were born. I liked being in control, unlike if they decided to suck their thumb. With the binky I could take it away or restrict it's use. Emmaline loved her binky. Around two, I started to restrict it. She could only have it at nap time, bed time and in the car. And sometimes I would make her sing a little song I made up. "I want my binky back. I want my binky back." Then I would let her have it. Cruel mom huh? Once Emma turned three and was sleeping in a toddler bed and had been potty trained for almost a year, I decided it was time. When she took her afternoon nap that day, I told her to leave her last binky under her pillow for the Binky Fairy. It was time for Emma to be a big girl and let the Binky Fairy take her binky for other little babies. Emma carefully placed her binky under her pillow. While she was sleeping the Binky Fairy came and took the binky, leaving a couple of small gifts and some fairy dust on the floor. Th...

Today my parents are celebrating thirty seven years of marital bliss. Congratulations mom and dad! Thank you for being my parents too. I love you all with all my heart.

Anyone else have a MySpace page? I set one up and check on it occasionally. Even after my husband made fun of me and asked me how old I was. Then I set up this blog and that was that. Last night though I decided to check on MySpace. See if anything interesting popped up. Check my profile. Mark was playing softball and the kids were in bed. I had papers to grade for that day's school work, but which would you rather do? Grade papers or waste time on the computer? I opted for the computer. I logged on and updated and such my profile. Then I clicked on some of my friends to see if anything was new or changed. Then I realized once again why I try not to go to MySpace. Once you click on a friend then you look at their friends. Then from their friends, you find friends. And so on. Good Lord. It is like this never ending connection of people and you keep clicking and clicking until you are so far gone from your original page you do not even know how you got there. What began as an innocen...

Five years ago today two planes crashed into the World Trade Center. Where were you? Emmaline was about a year and a half old. Too little to know anything. My mom called and told me to turn on the t.v. It was on but we were watching Nick or Disney; no breaking news there. I turned to something, I can not remember what, and was greeted with the images of the planes crashing into the towers. It was surreal. Here I was, tucked into the Midwest, with my baby girl and this was happening in New York. In the United States. That night when Mark got home, we packed up Emma and went to Crown Center for dinner at the Crayola Cafe and to hang out. To get away from the t.v. and the images. I remember feeling scared. Fearing what the future held for my baby girl. What did it mean for everyone? Today I take a moment to say prayers for all who lost someone in the attacks on 9/11. I take a moment to wish them peace. I take a moment to thank our military who has been serving us for the beginning. And t...

It was actually ten years ago yesterday that my husband and I had our first date. I like to tell the story this way.... Mark and I were both servers at Applebee's. We spent most of the summer hating one another. He thought I was a stuck up bitch. I thought he was a pathetic loser. Sometime around August, we both started to change our opinions. Mark began asking me out every time he saw me. I never said no; I never said yes. We spent a few nights talking after work. We both were in Theater class in college. I had to go see a play and write a paper on it. I bought tickets to UMKC's production of The Misanthrope. I purchased two tickets. About two days before the show, I had not asked or found anyone to go with me. I simply told Mark he needed that Tuesday, September 10, off . He took the night off and picked me up at my house to go to the show. We ate at Houlihan's on the Plaza afterward for dinner. It was what I began calling our "unofficial, official first date....

I was making a cake for my mom's birthday the other day. Davis noticed that it seemed to be chocolate. Maybe he could smell it. So, being the great mom that I am, once the cake was mixed and poured into the cake pan, I handed Davis the mixing bowl. At first he just looked at me and said, "Yum, chocolate." and looked into the bowl. I showed him how to stick his chubby little finger in to swipe the sides and get that cake batter on your finger. Then you lick your finger. It only took one demonstration and he had it. Off he went with his chocolate cake batter. Now I give you, Davis's first experience licking the bowl. Cool. Mom gave me this bowl of chocolate and said I can use my fingers and eat it. First you take your finger and swipe it along the edge of the bowl.... Then you lick your finger. Yummy goodness is all mine. Davis did somehow get that cake batter not only all over his face and arms and hands, but also all over his legs. He took a bath afterward. But he did...

When you spend countless hours "debating" on Babycenter , you make internet friends. These are people I would guess if we lived closer to one another, we would actually like and get along with in real life. Alas, the internet gives us the opportunity to meet people we would never get the chance to meet. And so as a result, Davis has been tagged by Grace . We have never been so honored. 3 Things That Scare Me *Mommy being gone *Emma being gone *ME being gone 3 People That Make Me Laugh *Emmaline *Papa *Isabelle (our doggie) 3 Things I Love *Food *taking a bath *playing with Emma 3 Things I Hate *Being told no *Getting out of the bath tub *not getting to go visit Papa 3 Things I Don't Understand *women *why anyone ever tells me no *college algebra 3 Things On My Desk/Table (or my night stand) *A singing Miss Spider *a collection of stuffed bears, including mom's musical bear that she got when she was one, it is antique now *a cup of pink milk 3 Things I Am Doing Right ...

I loved this song as a kid. I saw The Muppet Movie . I also watched the Muppets on t.v. on Saturday nights. It was good times. Someone, my aunt I think, bought me the record (yes, I said record) from the Muppet Movie. It was the big old 33 style. I played that record and especially The Rainbow Connection over and over on my record player. It even had been played so often that it skipped. Remember how on the record player you had to lift the arm and guess where to start a song again? Then we got tape players and it was better, but you still had to guess where to rewind too. Then we got CD's. Super easy. Now, mp3 players......Sometimes I would love to have my old record player back, a stack of 33's and 45's again. There is just something about hearing a song on a record player. So raw.... I thought of the Rainbow Connection again today. I was (still am???) such a dreamer as a child. Even when I graduated high school and my parents and sister took out an "ad" in the...

The last few days have been cool and cloudy. The sun is setting earlier. Fall is on his way. I love fall. Actually, I think I love all the seasons once I am getting tired of the season we are in. Summer gets old after a while and I get tired of dripping sweat all the time. Plus, nothing ever sounds good to eat in the summer time. It is just too hot. Now, fall holds the promise of black bean soup, roast, corn flake chicken. All the things that in the summer it is just too hot to have the oven on for so long. It also means baking time. Cookies and breads. Using the oven in the fall and winter warms the house and you have the smell of yumminess in the house. Fall means I can get out my long pants and sweats again. No more worrying about shaving my legs everyday. No more worrying about having pale arms or legs. No more worrying that my arms look too fat in a tank top. Fall means having hot chocolate, hot tea, or some coffee in the evening to warm up. It means getting my blanket and snuggli...

We had this big trunk in our living room. It was holding a bunch of toys (re: crap the kids did not want to put up and in a hurry we shoved in said trunk). It was one of those put together jobs from Target. It was wicker like and the bottom was fiber board. My kids beat the hell out of it. Davis liked to climb in it. The bottom was all busted out, the top was colored on and you CAN NOT get the coloring off of wicker, the sides were beat up. It was completely falling apart. True to my inner white trashiness (is that a word?) I had used duck tape all around the inside to try and reinforce the thing. Today was the day. The time had come. That trunk is now sitting outside on my curb. I had to clean it out first. Then I had to find a place for all the toys inside it that were actually salvageable. Which led me to having to clean out all the toy drawers in Emma's closet. She has five different ones, in three different size and colors. TWO BAGS of trash later, all is done. My living room...

When Emmaline was born it was obvious who she looked like. It took me some time to be okay with that. I mean, I was the one who carried her and gave birth to her. It was like a slap in the face that she looked just like her dad. But as she got older it became more and more apparent that she looked like her dad. Had I not been the one pregnant with her, I would question whether or not she was even mine. Just in case you do not believe me, here is a picture of the girl with her Papi. (this picture is from Christmas 2005, it is hard to find pictures of Mark in general....) So, I gave up long ago realizing that Emmaline was just going to look a lot like her Papi. Now, she acted a lot like me. Her personality is a lot like mine. She is loud and she never shuts up. She does not stop ever and she is beyond sassy. A lot like her mama. However, her ability to memorize and learn comes also from her dad. This became even more apparent today during Day Two of school. We have a Bible course. It is ...

Today we began First Grade Homeschooling. Luckily we did not take too long as we do not do all subjects yet and of course as time passes each subject gets a little harder and more involved. Math, reading/phonics, and music/art will not be an issue. Learning to write in cursive (yes the program we have calls for cursive writing in first grade) will prove to be the most challenging. Emmaline has good print writing, though she always mixes upper and lower case when writing. Now she has to learn cursive in proper form. She seems to enjoy that part. But she does not appreciate my criticizing her writing. It was only the first day and I may have been a little hard. But penmanship was always easy for me and bad penmanship really bothers me. Hopefully she will listen and do a good job. So we have Day One down and completed. We do not start reading until next week, so this week we will be little shorter. I hope we have a good school year....and I do not lose my mind doing this again this year.