Updates

I am putting some pictures in of Natalie and Hannah dressed up as Dora the Exploror. A friend from church gave them the costume. We are also growing out Natalie and Madelyn's bangs. Madelyn's hair is much thicker than Natalie's and is long enough to go behind her ears and doesn't hang in her face like a horse. But Natalie's is very fine and hangs right down in front of her eyes. So she still has to wear something most of the time to keep it out of her eyes. I still have never cut Hannah's hair.

Hannah is in love with horses. She is so cute and runs around the house neighing all the time. She also has started telling me things like "horses don't wear shoes" when it is time to put them on. Some other horse don'ts... "horses don't wear panties" "horses don't eat carrots" We convinced her they did and Madelyn got her to eat 2-3 little ones that way. She wants to watch SPIRIT every day, more than once if I would let her.

I am still pretty puny. I took 2 naps yesterday. Got up and helped Aaron get the girls ready for church, then went back to bed. Made lunch when they got home, stayed on the couch for a few hours and after that exhausting morning, took another nap on the couch. I prepared for our kids class A and I started teaching on Sunday nights. I was just going to do a craft and let them watch a movie. So, I went to church and they were going to have a 15 minute service, so they cancelled class, but ended up lasting almost an hour. oops. Oh well, I started feeling horrible during church and we left early. A took me and H home, and took M and N back with him to the Christmas dinner at church. My throat still hurts, but not as bad, but now it seems I have moved into the exhaustion mode. I have to lie down all the time. Oh, it is so annoying. Today, I have felt much better. We did school, although it had many breaks and drug out all day, and I cleaned the kitchen and made no-bake cookies. But by suppertime, it took all I had to drive to Pizza Hut for dinner. My neck on the sides is starting to hurt today - Swollen lymph nodes?

Natalie has been sneezing and coughing some. Also, has started to lie around a little and cling to me. Her throat looks a little red and I thought I saw a spot on her tonsils. I asked her if her throat hurt. She said "no". I told her she shouldn't have to take medicine for it, but I really wanted to know if it hurt, so she should be honest with me. She said "it only hurts when food goes down it" Good thing is, you usually don't get mono more than once, so we can all have it done with in one year.

15 days until Christmas. Have I bought the first Christmas present? Why no I haven't. And does it look like I am going to feel like shopping anytime soon? No. I don't like to shop when I feel good. Oh well, maybe next week.

Mononucleosis

Well, the verdict is in... I have Mono. Which would explain why I have had no get up and go for the last 3 weeks or so. Also probably explains why every few days a joint hurts that I don't remember injuring. Last week it was my knee. Then my right thumb joint, then my ankle. Then my right thumb joint again. Very strange. I had taken Madelyn to the doctor last week. The pediatrician said that tonsils like that were usually either Mono or strep and her strep test was negative. So was mine. Thanksfully, I went back to the doctor, when my throat got worse and armed with the info the pediatrician gave me, asked if I could get a mono test, therefore saving the kids from having to get their blood drawn.
I thought I was just getting lazy. I managed to go to church yesterday with the girls alone, although I really didn't feel like it, but the thought of staying in the house another day was depressing. Aaron got called to work, so he was not home. He did get back in time to go last night though, and after that busy day, I feel pretty horrible today. Lightheaded and slightly sick to my stomach. And of course the ever present sore throat and headache.
I think Aaron probably has a mild form of it. His throat has hurt for a few weeks, and he had a headache for about a month off and on starting before we got sick. He doesn't have tonsils though, so it is hard to tell in his throat.
I have seen how sick people have become with it and maybe the worst is yet to come, I hope not, especially for the kids sake. The fact that Madelyn and Hannah hardly act like their sick, is something to be thankful for. Luckily, we can still go places if we feel like it, as long as no one drinks or eats after us, and we don't cough in peoples' faces or have a fever.
Please pray we have a swift recovery and that Natalie avoids it, which she has done so far.

the Best Cat ever & the Best Man ever

Madelyn brought the cat to me today with this blue bag and says "can you help me get the cat in the bag, she is not letting me do it" I told her that she probably didn't want to go in the bag, but held it open while Madelyn dropped the cat in head first with only her tail hanging out the top. She eventually got turned around and Madelyn carried her around like this for at least 5 min. Which is a long time for a cat to stay in a bag. The cat goes for walks with us (unleashed), plays soccer with the girls, carries sticks around like a dog, and will race the girls in the yard. She also likes to go in front of them while they are riding a bike, or in front of me while pushing a stroller, and just stops. It's a good thing we like her.

The next picture is of Hannah tonight when she was getting ready to go to sleep.

I didn't get to work as much last week as I had planned. Got some strep throat like illness and had to go to the doctor for antibiotics. Now Madelyn is complaining of a sore throat, so I get the flashlight out - I thought my tonsils looked bad - hers are covered with white spots and HUGE and red. So, I mention getting a doctor's appt. and miraculously, her throat stops hurting, but I have the proof, I can see it myself. So, tomorrow, we risk bringing home more disease when we go and try to get rid of this one. It took about 2 days of my throat gradually getting worse before I got to the point of hardly being able to swallow.

We got our Christmas tree up and decorated Thanksgiving day. Since I was planning on working and ended up being sick that day, we did have Turkey dumplings that I made from some frozen turkey, but that is as far as the traditional Thanksgiving feast we got to.

I haven't started shopping for Christmas and haven't even made out a list of who I am going to buy for. Seems like the older I get and the more kids I have, the more hectic life gets and the later in the season I remember that Christmas is coming and maybe I might ought to go shopping.

It doesn't help that I HATE to shop. Add the crowds on top of that. I am going to throw this out there in case there are other women out there reading this with shopping aversions. My mom says she doesn't know what happened to me as to why I turned out this way. But I finally figured out one reason I hate it... I get motion sick pretty easily. What do you do when you shop? Constantly turn your head side to side. Add to that the smell of new clothes and what we have here is a motion sick shopper with a headache that is depressed that she can't fit in size ___(I'm not telling) clothes anymore. Now, is that the type of person you want to spend a day with? So Mom, be glad that I don't grace you with my presence at the mall. If Aaron reads this, he will laugh b/c I don't know if he really believes my "motionsick at the mall" excuse, but he's not complaining. I have saved thousands of dollars in our years of marriage being a "miser" (another nickname Mom gave me when I was younger) and a mall hater. Of course the trade off is that he gets to live in a very undecorated, plain house with a wife who is pretty much content to wear the same 5 shirts and 5 pants every week, b/c why buy more when you can just wash the ones you have?

Anyway, if he does laugh, who am I to compete with the excellent specimen of humanity he is.?

He is the one who has gained 40 lb since we met and he still wears a size 32 pants. So while he is gaining muscle, I... well if you have seen me lately, you know. Then, I always thought my eyes weren't that bad. I mean, I can see well enough to read without glasses or contacts. That is - close up. I can't see that great far away even with my glasses on. At least I thought that I was deficient since I am constantly squinting looking far away asking Aaron, "what time does that clock say?" "What does that say up there on the screen?" Little did I know that I was comparing myself to someone with 20/13 and 20/12 eyesight....WITHOUT glasses or contacts. Yes, he comes home tonight after having to take a physical for a CDL license, bragging about how he impressed the nurses and everyone in the hallway watching him take the seeing test. (He later says that he could have read 1/2 of the next line, but didn't want to only get 1/2 a line, would rather go out with a bang, reading a whole line )

There are two ways to look at this...

#1 wow, I am so blessed to have such a wonderful specimen of a man for a husband!!

#2 Man, you make me look bad!!!

What we've been up to...

It has been a while since I posted. Life is good. Let's see...I will start today and go backwards. Today was the last day of coop classes that we have every Friday until January. We didn't miss any Fridays this semester. Which I will say "Thank you God for our health!" I think Hannah missed one day for a 2 day fever.
On Wednesday, we took a day off for a field trip to an American Indian Heritage day. It was about an hour away from here at a government owned place. When I signed up, I had to give the names and ages of all of us coming. Then they sent us a map and a letter, telling us to bring a photo ID, our car tag receipt, and proof of car insurance, and be ready to have the car searched. Well, luckily, we didn't have to go through all of that. This place is real big, I mean miles big, the directions were "drive 2.3 miles, then turn L, then 3 miles, then turn R, then 4.5 miles etc. All that was after going through the guard gate. Well, I made a wrong turn and ended up off the property and had to go back to the interstate and start all over. Luckily there was a different guard at the gate when we got back around.
It was a lot of fun, and to quote Natalie "this was the funnest day of my life" There were lots of American Indians dressed up, and others showing how to make flint knives, throw spears, there was a mud hut, huge tee pee, samples of Indian food, crafts, etc. But the best was the Native dancing which was excellent. One guy was the 2007 champion ring dancer. Of course they did lots of loud Indian drums and chanting into microphones, which made it very loud. As we were walking to it, Hannah of course, completely lost it freaking out. I must admit, to a 3 year old, they probably looked and sounded terrifying. I ended up having to carry her to the circle to sit down, screaming. Luckily, the singing was so loud, I don't think anyone heard her. Then all 8 of the dressed up Indians started dancing right toward us (we were at the far end) I kept on pointing out to her that there was a girl about 8 or so dancing, so they couldn't be all that scary. She settled down and wonder of wonders, for the last dance, they asked for volunteers and Hannah raises her hand. Madelyn and Natalie were too scared. So, Hannah went out there with about 30 other kids and they all joined hands and danced in a circle, weaving in and out. I was so proud that she overcame being terrified so quickly.
There was also a life size robot that talked to the kids and moved around on a base with wheels. He was pretty funny. The guy controlling it and talking to us was really good. He just paced back and forth behind all of us like he was just another visitor.
I forgot the digital camera, so all I had was a disposable and don't have the pictures yet.
Still working on the Vietnam dossier. It is coming together fast and I hope to have it done by December.

Monday night was our Thanksgiving dinner with our homeschool association. Madelyn has been taking drama for kids, so she was in a short little play. She was an angel and we only got a picture of her before. There were so many people there, and our camera only took black pictures from as far back as we were. She didn't have any speaking lines, the group of 7-8 angels, just periodically got up and sang a song. We were able to hear them, but we heard nothing of the rest of the play. It was fun to watch her and I am proud of her and told her many times how good it is that she gets up in front of people even when she was scared. My estimate is there was probably at least 250 people there, but I am not that great at estimating.

Field Trip

THE PARTHENON

A few months ago, I scheduled a tour of the Parthenon in Nashville since I knew we would be studying Greece this last week. We read a few of the stories about Greek gods, and what they believed. The girls really liked a lot of the stories, and we rented Hercules from the library in honor of it. Let me suggest if you want to go to the Parthenon, schedule a tour. You only have to have 10 people for a tour, with a tour guide. We had 11, and since we were a homeschool group, we got the discount rate. I think if we had gone without the tour, it would have taken us 20 min. to go through the whole thing. However, we were there about 1 hr. and 20min. The girls did real well, and the husband/wife team that led our group was real informative and tried to involve the girls. The only other child was my neice who is 12.

Hannah the strongest 3 year old is pushing shut a door that weighs 7 1/2 tons!! All by herself!!

Athena, goddess of wisdom and war - a 41 foot tall statue. There was about a 3 foot statue in the first room we went to and I had told Madelyn there was a huge statue. She thought the 3 foot replica was it and she was very let down. When we walked into the room with the real one, Natalie's mouthed gaped wide open for a good 30 seconds.

The girls enjoyed chasing the geese in the grass surrounding the building.

We finished the tour and walked over to the park and ate a picnic. It was a great day and another reason to homeschool!!

Recipe #5

Cube Steak

4-8 cube steaks
1 packet of onion gravy
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup water
1 tsp of garlic powder

Dredge the cube steaks in flour on both sides.
Brown both sides in a skillet with oil.
Put beef in crock pot on low.
Put the rest of the ingredients in the crock pot with beef.
Cook on low 8-10 hours stirring a few times.

I love cooking in the crock pot. I probably cook 75% of the meat we eat in the crock pot. It is so easy. Plus, there is not a mad rush at the end of the day trying to time the meat getting done with supper time. Bad thing is, you have to remember to plan ahead and start it in the morning.

Halloween

Here are some pictures of the girls getting their hair curled and getting ready for the Church's Halloween party. Can you tell who likes to pose the most? Natalie's costume was supposed to be an angel, but the wings wouldn't stay on and we decided she looked more like and Egyptian, so she did a few poses for that.
Madelyn had to try and figure out what to do with a hoop skirt while sitting down. I think we got it down pretty well. There is a Trunk or Treat Wed. night before church, so they will have another chance to dress up.

Also, I got solved the problem of taking chairs back and forth between the classroom and the diningroom. Last Saturday, Madelyn and Natalie and I went on a search for chairs for the kitchen table. Our first stop was this huge warehouse type building in town. Instead of chairs, I found these old school chair/desk combos. They were just $10 each, so I got 3. The girls are excited to do some of their school work in them and now I don't have to carry 4 chairs back and forth every day. I still could use some dining room chairs, for when we have company, but at least it is not a daily problem.

Finally got our Vietnam dossier paperwork. I am anxious to get to work on it. Looks like it is a lot less than the Guatemala one, and hopefully some of it will transfer. Can't wait to get back on a waiting list.