Hmmm...

Today is Sunday, it's always crazy at our house on Sunday! I did not get home until after 6:00pm. We had church then I had a women's ministry meeting. At the meeting it was announced that Sommer and I would no longer be doing Bloom. I love Bloom, it is like my baby since Sommer and I created it from scratch and planned every meeting each month. But I am just to tired to deal with the "powers that be" anymore. A few years ago I would have stood and fought and said "I'll make this work no matter what!" But I just don't have the time or energy anymore. Plus I am trying to not only manage my time but my energy as well. Should I expend alot of energy fighting against the "powers that be" or direct my energy at more well meaning things like my family, friends work etc...? HMMMM...
Bloom will continue in a different format, more social outings, which should be fun. The women's ministry will take it over.

New Job!

Yes, I finally got another job. It seems like it took forever but it was worth the wait. I am working for the Innsbrook foundation. For those of you who don't know Innsbrook is a large business complex in Glen Allen.
The foundation plans the events that happen at Innsbrook as well as the concert series. I also get my own office, very cool!

Title

I know I haven't blogged in a long time. Sorry. It has been so busy, especially for a housewife who sits around eating bon bons all day and watching soap operas. I have been helping Alan at church every week, it's amazing how busy my days are even though I'm not "working".
I had a coupon for m&m's for the retreat, I should have known an unattended bag of peanut m&m's should not be laying around my house. I'll have to buy another bag the day we leave. Oh well.
Alan and I are taking the dancing class at church. It's really starting to be fun since it's not like learning chinese anymore. We just finished the fox trot and we will start the east coast swing next week. It should be fun, and a good time start if you want to take the class.

Dancing Class

Alan and I are taking a ballroom dancing class at church, yes church. If genetics are any indication of how well we will do we are in trouble. Below is a clip of Noah "freestyling" as we like to call it, with his dance moves. You will also notice his brother and sister in the background completely unphased by this demonstration.

New Year

I know I haven't blogged in a while. It has been a crazy few weeks for me. I have decided to set a New Year's resolution. No not to lose weight, I figured I'll wait until they do lipo at Patient First. I have decided to resolve to grow spiritually this year. I think the more spiritually fit I am the other areas I struggle with will fall into place.
It has definately been a rough new year, as most of you know I lost my job right before Christmas. This has really changed the plans I had for this year. But I have really seen how out of balance my life was since I've been at home with lots of free time. I have been able to spend time with the kids and not be constantly on call with work, I have been able to do what I love, women's ministry, and not feel like I'm totally distracted all the time. I have been able to help Alan with children's ministry, something I haven't been able to really focus on. So even though it sucks losing my job it has had its advantages.
Speaking of women's ministry, Sommer and I are starting a class on 2/3 at 5:00. We are reading the book Preparing your daughter for every women's battle. This will be an eight week class I think every women with a girl should take. You can email me for more info or to sign up.

Merry Christmas

As Christmas comes to an end and I ponder my week I thought these statistics were fitting.

If you have food in your fridge and clothes on your back you are and a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the people in the world. If you have any money in the bank, some in your wallet and loose change in a dish you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy; If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of improsment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation you are ahead of 500 million other people in the world. If you can attend church services without the fear of harrament, arrest, torture or death you are more blessed than 3 billion people in the world.

This really brings alot of things into perspective.
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!

Gotta Love Samples!

I just have to blog about this, it is so ridiculous. WARNING! Men you probaly don't want to read this.

I warned you.

Ok, I got a free sample of pads from Always. Attached to the pad is a little wipe. So as I opened it up I thought, what am I gonna do with this wipe. It is literally a single thin wipe. For anyone who has ever had a period you know the only way you could use a wipe during your period is to maybe wipe off public restroom seats. Now if Always wants to attach half a box to every pad then maybe we could have a happy period, well not happy maybe melonchaly. This is one of those marketing schemes that had to be thought of by a man. If I came at my v-jayjay with a single wipe while on my period it would bust into laughter and say "you think so do ya?"
I know I can already hear Alan saying "REEBBBEECCCAAA!" Hey I just call it like I see it.

Sick Day

Hannah stayed home again today. She woke up with a fever for the third day in a row. But she will definetely be going to school tomorrow.
Last night she took a bath and afterwards asked me to brush her hair. As I brushed her long, knotted up hair I got more and more mad, so today she got a hair cut! Woohoo! It looks so much better.
Her picture is at the very bottom of the page, don't ask me why it's at the very bottom.

The Golden Compass

This movie causing quite a debate amongst the "children's pastors" circle my husband converses with.
Here is the bottom line, from me anyways.
BE THE PARENT! You decide what you do and do not want your kids involved in. If the subject matter is to much or to "out there" then don't watch it but for crying out loud, make your own decisions for your family. Stop relying on the "experts" to tell you how to raise your kids. We will all have to cross the bridges of anarchy, witchcraft, etc... with our kids. But you know when that time is right, that's right, YOU.
It's scary that we as parents are becoming so powerless in our own families. I see it all the time with the kids calling the shots and magazine articles telling us how to raise the perfect polite, well behaved child. It's simple, you decide what your family morals are, you decide what is and is not acceptable in your home, and you decided what kind of family you want. Then you work towards that goal.
Is backtalk acceptable? Is disrespect acceptable? Is telling you No I won't do that acceptable? What about disobedience? If it's not acceptable and it's happening what are you doing about it?
BE THE PARENT. YOUR KIDS REALLY WANT YOU TOO.

Canned Corn

My kids had a canned food drive at school this week. So, I sent each of them with a canned veggie to donate. Well, of course it didn't go down that simply or I wouldn't be blogging about it, right?
Zeik took his can of corn into the cafeteria and asked the cafeteria attendant to open it so he could eat it for lunch. And of course, she did. He ate the whole can of cold canned corn. This would only happen at our house. I'm sure the cafeteria ladies think I'm a crazy mother for sending my son with a can of corn for his lunch.

Also we have a crazy squirrel at our house. Last Monday Alan called me and said there was a squirrel in a tree eating a bird. I of course said, squirrels don't eat birds, it probaly has rabies, call animal control.
The animal control officer said there has never been a case of squirrel rabies and it's the natural order of things. I said WHATEVER! We have a whacko, crazy rodent in our yard. Again, only at our house would this happen.
If you could only see the number of trees we have, its ridiculous. One day the squirrels are going to unite and takeover.