Instant Messaging

I talked to my brother Erik, today, & he helped me set up an instant messaging account. --I actually had it a few years ago, but stopped using it. So.. .I got it up and running again, & hooked up my webcam to the computer. So... if anyone wants to sign up for AIM, we could instand message, & talk via video --and if you had a webcam also, then that'd be even more fun! :)

if you sign up, let me know, & i'll add you to my buddy list. :)

Barats And Bereta

heather sent me a fun video about mother's day, by a couple of guys named "Barats and Bereta" I'm not posting it, 'cause i'm guessing most of you have seen it.

but after watching that one, i went through & watched a bunch of other videos by the same guys. They were pretty funny. I especially enjoyed this one:

knock knock

A is for Apple

This week, in school, the kids are learning about apples. So when I was at the store today, I bought one of every kind of apple. Then I brought them home, and we tried a little bit of each. It was very fun. It's really interesting how different each apple tastes. Had a been a good homeschooling mom, we would have charted how they tasted, what they looked like, and which ones tasted best. But I didn't think of that until affter the apples had been eaten.

But here's what *I* found out, for any of you may be hunting for the perfect apple:

Royal Gala: Delish! :~P crisp and sweet, w/an extra fun little extra taste that I can't describe. My favorite.

Southern Rose: also crisp and sweet. my 2nd favorite

Braeburn: mildly sweet and sour. And not as crisp

Honey crisp: crisp and tart - but not like a Granny Smith.

Granny Smith: crisp and SOUR --Gideon's favorite. :)

Red Delicious: used to be my favorite until I tasted the first two. Compared to them, it's only a little bit sweet. --but on the bland side. Crisp.

Fuji: used to be another favorite, but compared to the others, it's soft and a little bland --just a touch of sweetness.

Pacific Rose: my least favorite. crisp but very bland. No point in tasting that one. --which was disappointing, since it was one of the most expensive in the store.

Gideon enjoys his Granny Smith

A challenge

I just joined a new group in flickr called "The Six Word Story" The idea is to title your picture with a six word story. Here's a clip from their page:


Ernest Hemingway was once prodded to compose a complete story in six words. His answer, personally felt to be his best prose ever, was "For sale: baby shoes, never used." Some people say it was to settle a bar bet. Others say it was a personal challenge directed at other famous authors.


This was very thought provoking to me. What great stories can *you* tell in six words?

The morning was full of promise.

Washing Instructions

Dad sent this to me awhile back. Thought it was funny. :)

it worked!

it rained this morning.

Tut-tut, it looks like rain...

it never rains here, which is very unfortunate for Chloe, because she love to play with her umbrella. This day, she got all dressed up in her rain coat & umbrella, so she could go play in the sun. :)

"Isn't it fine?" Shouted Winnie-the Pooh down to you. "What do I look like?"

"You look like a Bear holding on to a balloon," you said.

"Not--" said Pooh anxiously, "--not like a small black cloud in a blue sky?"

"Not very much."

"Ah well, perhaps from up here it looks different. And, as I say, you never can tell with bees."

There was no wind to blow him nearer to the tree so there he stayed. He could see the honey, he could smell the honey, but he couldn't quite reach the honey.

After a little while he called down to you.

"Christopher Robin!" he said in a loud whisper.

"Hallo!"

"I think the bees suspect something!"

"What sort of thing?"

"I don't know. but something tells me that they're suspicious!"

"Perhaps they think that you're after their honey."

"It may be that. You never can tell with bees."

There was another little silence, and then he called down to you again.

"Christopher robin!"

"Yes?"

"Have you an umbrella in your house?"

"I think so."

"I wish you would bring it out here, and walk up and down with it, and look up at me every now and then, and say 'Tut-tut, it looks like rain.' I think, if you did that, it would help the deception which we are practising on these bees."

Well, you laughed to yourself, "silly old Ber!" but you didn't say it aloud because you were so fond of him, and you went home for your umbrella.

"oh, there you are!" called down Winnie-the-Pooh, as soon as you got back to the tree. "I was beginning to get anxious. I have discovered that the bees are definitely Suspicious."

"Shall I put my umbrella up?" you said.

"Yes, but wait a moment. We must be practical. The important bee to deceive is the Queen Bee. Can you see which is the Queen Bee from down there?"

"No"

"A pity. Well, now if you walk up and down with your umbrella, saying, 'Tut-tut, it looks like rain,' I shall do what I can by singing a little Cloud Song such as a cloud might sing...Go!"

So while you walked up and down and wondered if it would rain, Winnie-the-Pooh sang a song.

From "The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh"

by A.A. Milne

More summer pics: Gideon's 5th birthday

summer photos

well, i've finally gotten around to going through some photos from this summer. I took all of these at swim lessons one day.

chloe does the backstroke:

Chloe swims!

Gideon LOVED his new goggles! he said he liked to look underwater at all the pretty bathing suits. :)

Zachy goes under

Zachy loved making big splashes!

Happy birthday to Grandma!

My grandma is 89 years old today!

Monday fun

You may recall my visit to the dentist last month, when I was told that Zachy would need his frendulum cut. Well, today, we took Gideon in to have his pallet expander adjusted, and they happened to have time to squeeze Zachy in as well. So, spur of the moment, poor little Zachary had a mini surgery done to his mouth. he'll be drinking shakes the rest of the day... :) i think I'll miss his cute little tongue.

so now his tongue is normal. he can move it up and down & way out just like ours.... but he can't. if we ask him to stick his tongue out, he still curves it down over his lip. And when we asked him to point it up, he couldn't figure out how. it was pretty funny. :)

weekend fun

last Tuesday, everybody got shots. Chloe got her usual monthly lupron shot, Gideon got 4 or 5 kindergarten shots, and Zachy got a few 3 year-old shots. It was an exciting day. So as a treat, chris told everyone he'd take them camping. :)

Sooo, Saturday, we packed up our things, and went camping. so fun! This was a big deal, because, I've refused to go camping, ever since Chloe was born. it just seemed like way too much work to do with a little baby. Well, now we don't have a little baby anymore! so we went and had a blast. --all except for the drunk people in the site next to us, who stayed up partying til 3 in the morning.

speaking of scatterbrained...

Then there's the time I took the kids to the park & realized I didn't have any shoes on. Y'know, I can understand not noticing if my kids were missing shoes, but how is one unaware when their own shoes aren't on???

a moment in the life of a scatterbrained mom

Today I went to the fridge to get some food, and found a dirty diaper sitting on the shelf, right next to the lunch meat.

New book

we started a new class at church on Wed. The is part 2 of the "Victory Over the Darkness" book that we did over the summer. Now we're reading "Bondage Breakers." i'm looking forward to it. will let you know how it goes as time goes on. :)

Over the Rhine

Heather just told me about a great new (to me) band called Over the Rhine. I bought their CD, "The Trumpet Child" from itunes. loved it! my favorites are: "let's spend the day in bed," "trouble" and "i'm on a roll." i'm still trying to figure out a way to put my itunes music on the blog, but i found them on youtube... here's I'm on a Roll:


This is another song from the same album:
Nothing is innocent now


update: okay... i just found that you can listen to the album on a little window that I found on their website. So.. you *have to* click on "listen to the album" above, then scroll down & listen to "Let's Spend the Day in Bed." beacause I love it! It makes me feel like i wanna spend the day in bed. :) While you're at it, you can listen to "Don't wait for Tom" which is fun. :)

Forgot to mention...

We started school last week! Chloe is now a big first grader, and Gideon is in kidergarten! yay!

I'm having a hard time adjusting. I can't quite figure out a groove, yet, so it's all rather chaotic. *sigh* it makes a big difference, doing two kids this year. I keep reminding God that He's the one who had me do this, so He's gonna have to figure it out for me. I'm watching expectantly to see how He does it. :)

Today, we're trying out a P.E. class at the YMCA. I think that should be fun. :)

Celebrate!

Chris took a test for work, yesterday. Now he has his General Engineering License. Congratulations, Chris!!

What's for dinner?

Tonight, we didn't have a real sit-down-with-the-family dinner, because Chris is studying for a big contractor's exam that he has to take in the morning. So I got a whole cooked chicken from Costco (theirs are hormone & antibiotic free) and shredded it to make chicken salad. Chloe was able to help me with a lot of it, and we had lots of fun dancing in the kitchen while we worked. :)

Here's the recipe:

Chicken Salad

one whole shredded chicken
1 can crushed pineapple
2 or 3 stalks of chopped celery
2 med. apples chopped into small pieces
a tiny bit of diced onion
a couple dollops of mayonnaise
1T sugar dissolved in 1T vinegar
salt & pepper to taste

I served it with bread & cheese slices -- And cookies for the kids who ate their food. ;~)

What did you have?

so that's what *I* think.

My little Angel

Doesn't she look precious?

A week or two ago, I had to call poison control, because I found Evelyn eating from a bottle of anti fungal ointment. About an hour later, I decided not to call poison control again (because it would be too embarrassing to call twice in a row), after finding that she drank a bottle of sulfur (which had been prescribed to me for my acne). Shortly after that (and many times since) I caught her playing in my make up.

That all happened in one day. It was just the beginning. No matter how I try to keep my eye on her, and keep things out of her reach, she's always getting into stuff! Aside from her regular activities of playing in the toilet that the boys forgot to flush, getting into the flour & sprinkles in my baking drawer, and playing with my make-up; in a matter of just a couple weeks, I caught her walking around in Chris's socks:

using the Desitin as a facial ointment:
Can you see it in her hair? (!)

playing with the Q-tips:

and sitting in the sink, playing with toothpaste:

I didn't take a picture of the half-tub of hair product she put in her hair, or the dish soap that she ate, because you wouldn't have been able to see anything. I also didn't photograph the time she ate a bunch of my antibiotics, because I found the spilled bottle of half-eaten pills after she had run off to get into something else. And these things all happened in the last two weeks or so. Yesterday, it was Chloe's fingernail polish. that was a colorful sight. *sigh*

~~~

Update: oops! almost forgot the time she climbed onto Chris' motorcycle, ready to ride!

girls' room

i told you awhile back about the new bunk bed that chris put together for the girls. finally... here's a picture. :)

Don't look at me in that tone of voice

Today, Gideon did something unkind to Zachary, so i reprimanded him. He didn't seem to take it seriously, so i ended my reprimand with good long "i-mean-business" glare. After a few seconds of locking eyes, Gideon says, "Mom, when are you going to stop staring at me?" :~)

Business Time

Thanks, Shannon, for sending me the link to this video. Thought is was *so* funny! warning: not for little ears. :)



Because there's nothing good on tv

Business Socks!

Two minutes in heaven is better than one minute in heaven. :)

Flying Home

Final pictures from florida:

a baby (?) crocodile in an aquarium at the airport. Had to take a picture of him, since i wasn't able to catch one of the "crocodile crossing" sign.
The friendly skies... makes me think of a flock of sheep. :)

Good ol' Los Angeles. such a difference from Florida!

Another of Los Angeles.

Florida, Day Four

okay... the final day of the trip... when we were on the plane, flying to Florida, we were brainstorming what else we should do while we were out there, so we got out a map to see what was around. Well, being that neither chris nor I know *anything* about geography. We were both surprised to see how close the Bahamas were to Florida. We thought, for awhile, about getting plane tickets for a day trip out there, but that didn't work out. Well, since we had the beach boys "Kokomo" song stuck in out heads, we decided to try the next best thing: Key Largo (montego. Baby, why don't we go... )

After looking into it, we found that Key Largo is about a 4 1/2 hour drive from where we were, which is a long drive. But, when we're *that* close, how could we not go? So we left Discovery Cove a little early, went to the hotel to pack up our things, & took off toward Key Largo. We drove 1/2 way there, & stopped in Miami.

Here's the view from our room the next morning (reminder: click on any picture to view it large):

of course, we had to stop at some point to take pictures of our awesome ride:

The majority of the drive down was on the big long stretch of road called the Florida Turnpike. It's a really great fast-moving road, but you hafta stop about 10 times, or so, to pay a toll --& i'm not talking about a 25 cent toll. at one point we paid like $12! Anyway, the toll stops became such a regular part of out trip, that we figured we should photograph it. :) We tried to get a picture of the lady who took our money, but she told us no. --and then suddenly changed her mind as we were driving away, but it was too late.

driving along some more, we passed tons of palm tree farms.

Finally, we made it to Key Largo. If you have Google Earth (a really cool, free program that i would recommend to anyone), you can type in "Caribbean Watersports" under businesses & it'll take you there. If you look toward the water, & see the pier that we were on. Then, look out further into the water to see "Butternut Key." See the island way off in the distance, below? That's Butternut Key. :) (this photo is now what we use for our computer desktop)

At Caribbean watersports, they took us on a boat ride, out to some of the little islands nearby. These islands, aren't really made out of land, but of huge clumps of Mangrove trees. They're actually part of Everglades National Park.

This is a picture of the "island" a little closer up.

The mangrove trees send out tons of roots into the water, in order to get enough fresh water to survive. If you click on this picture to see it larger, you can see a bunch of white stuff down toward the bottom of their roots. That's salt that the trees have filtered out of their system from the ocean water.

Another shot of the stunning sky & water.

As we boated around, we saw 2 sharks in the water (can't remember what kind), some barracudas. needlefish, & other fun things. The guide said that he sees dolphins every couple days, but we didn't see any. Next, he took a net & scraped it along the floor of the ocean (the water was only a few feet deep), & pulled out all sorts of fun, tiny little creatures, including seahorses! it was hard to focus through the plastic tub that we put them in, but here's a fuzzy picture of a seahorse:

Another: you can see his head on the bottom right.

Chris holds one in his hand. These little guys are maybe only an inch long. Tiny!!

After that, the guide took us to an area covered in jellyfish. These guys all sit at the bottom of the ocean, with their tentacles sticking up. Apparently, they're not all that toxic, so if you hold them, all they'll do is make your hand itch. So we caught a couple & had a look. I was too scared to hold one, so I took the pictures. :)

floating down to the bottom, after we threw him back.

Another, bigger guy, feet up.

floating.

After our "environmental tour," we sat at the outdoor bar & had lunch. Then we took some jet skis out for a little ride. Then a quick picture before we left for the long drive back home to orlando.

an interesting fact: Everybody thinks of the Fl. Keys as beautiful white sandy beaches. But actually, they're covered w/trees! the only reason we're standing on sand is because the hotel ships it in, for the tourists!

This is the porch of the hotel in Key largo. I liked the look of all the cool fans. Also thought it was interesting that the fans are all tied in place (see the wires coming out around the sides?), so they don't get blown around during a hurricane.

Driving back home, the stretch along the keys is a little 2 lane road that's under construction. They must have problems w/people, because we passed these staggered signs a few times:

They say "Patience pays only 2 miles until passing zone" :)

Another sunpass stop.

We called the Florida turnpike, "the Florida Autobahn" The speed limit was 70, so people easily went 80-100. A couple times, when the road was clear, chris floored it for a little fun. I snapped this picture a little late. His top speed was actually about 160. :)

lots of fun! we returned to our hotel in Orlando, & took a walk down to the lake, where we renewed our vows (an anniversary tradition). Then we went to our room & packed up.