Pet Peeve

Now, I know that my bathroom is not the only one that has this problem. Do you see it??? A toilet paper roll sitting on an empty toilet paper roll that is hanging on the toilet paper holder.

Why? What is so hard about changing the toilet paper?

It's an easy thing to do. It just takes a little time.

So, the next time you are sitting there and notice that the roll is empty...get a new roll but PLEASE put it on the holder.

My picks for the season

Yes folks, It's that time again...my picks for Dancing With the Stars.

Warren Sapp is a retired defensive tackle. He's a BIG man!!! He was so light on his feet and fun to watch. I'm picking him from the men's group.

Misty May Treanor. Here you have an Olympic goal medalist. A 2 time goal medalist. A fantastic volleyball player. She's a pretty good dancer too. She's my pick out of the women.

It was strange watching DWTS and not being with Mom. It's even stranger not being able to pick up the phone to call her.

In 6 days it'll be 2 months that she's been gone. It's still hard to comprehend. Mom was a LOUD, little woman. We always made fun of her for being loud. Right now, I would enjoy hearing loudness.

And if Cloris Leachman doesn't get kicked off tomorrow night, I'm gonna shoot myself in the foot. I understand that she's 80 something years old...but she cannot dance!!!

Some of what's going on

I'm sitting here watching the effects from Hurricane Ike hit our area. We have been blessed with just rain and some high winds. So far we haven't lost any trees and I made sure to put things around the yard up yesterday so they wouldn't be gone with the wind.

Our local grocery store was a mad house yesterday with all of the people around trying to get water, food and gas. We usually have Saturday evening church but cancelled that due to the weather. It's been nice to be home on a Saturday night!

Last night we went to Homecoming. We left after half time since the score was 44-6 in our favor. We set near the band and here's my niece doing her thing with the Drum line.Amanda managed to get her science experiment done despite the clouds that were blowing in from the Gulf. Along the way, she decided to eat a little of it.

She had to melt chocolate with a magnifying glass. She had to determine if it melted fasted with the magnifying glass far away or closer. Then she discovered she could catch a leaf on fire with the glass...watch out Survivor.

Below is a picture from the first week of school. We went to Six Flags with our cousins and some friends. Aren't they cute???

Oh, I can't forget the visit we had with John McCain...isn't this so funny!!! We've been getting together with friends to study some history and this being an election year, well, what can I say. Senator McCain couldn't resist a visit.

Now if that ain't some stuff

WHEWWWW!!! Last Tuesday we started our third year of homeschool. Last Wednesday, I wanted to enroll her back into Public School!!!! After months of being prepared I was ready to sell it all and head up to MISD.

I'm not really though, but the thought DID cross my mind. In fact I told Amanda that if she didn't apply herself here at home with her studies, I know some people up there that might be able to motivate her.

So far her Bible study, Spelling and Handwriting (is improving) are going good. It's the English and Math that she doesn't get into. I knew History and Science were going to be boogers! I might have to rethink our schedule. We have ended up doing those subjects at night. And in a few more weeks we won't be able to do that...Dancing With the Stars and Survivor will be back, thank you very much!!!

The Spanish cd that she's doing, she isn't too keen on since it doesn't sing like Hannah Montana or look like the Jonas Brothers.

Amanda asked me the other day what age she had to be to have a boyfriend...I said 21. She has to wait until 16 to have her ears pierced, 21 sounds good enough for a boyfriend.

My sisters and I had the estate sale at Mom's last weekend. It's so strange to go into her cute, little house and nothing be there, especially her. There's a lady in town that's interested in it. But she hasn't made us an offer yet. I'm praying that she buys it, I know she would take care of it!

Homecoming is this weekend. We play Kemp. This isn't the BIG homecoming so there's no parade or any grand festivities. Rhonda, my sister, is a teacher at Kemp. She graduated from Mabank but teaches at Kemp. She also has the audacity to sit on their side during the football game at Panther Stadium. Her daughter, Caitlyn is on the Mabank Drum Line. But she's sitting on Kemp's side??? Go figure...

So far things are going good between the sisters and I. Maybe things are changing between us.

One month

Today is one month that Mom has been gone. It still seems like a dream/nightmare. It seems like yesterday that we all sat in her ICU room and listened to her heart stop beating. To add insult to injury, our cousins, 18 year old son was involved in a car wreck on Wednesday.

He didn't make it. It's so weird. Their world will be a blur for quite some time. They will go into his room, just wander around, look at all of the stuff in his room, smell his clothes and cry. They will keep themselves so busy that they won't have to think about anything.

Cause once you stop, then you think.

And while I'm on the subject of thinking...What lesson am I suppose to be learning here??? That childrens and parents hearts can be broken?? I mean, its a TOTALLY different hurt, but its hurt just the same. It's really kind of strange. Tracy, our cousin is the father of Wade, the 18 year old. Tracy is related to us on our Dad's side. When Mom and Dad divorced, Tracy still came out to the house to visit.

That side of the family still thought of Mom as part of the family. And quite a lot of them came to show their respect to Mom. We asked Tracy to be a pall bearer at Mom's funeral. Now he and his wife are having to deal with the loss of their little boy.

What is going on here? Whatever it is...I wish it would stop.

A Day of First

First of all, lookie at my new computer. It's RED...I love RED! It's my signature color, not really I like blue too. There's my lesson plan book for school, it's already full and waiting for next week. Isn't it pretty? Mike got a pretty good deal so Michael and I got new laptops. We needed them since our others are now obsolete. This has been a day of many first and I know more are to come.

1) This is the first in many, many years that Kemp Special Education Department began classes without Mom. You can call and still hear her voice on the answering machine.
2) This Friday will be the first High school football game that Mom will not attend to see Caitlyn perform. So I guess I'll have to go watch her.
3) This is the first time that I have posted my phone number on a "For Sale by owner" sign. That sign will be put in Mom's yard.
4) Today the "Dancing With the Stars" celebrities were announced and I couldn't call Mom to let her know who they are.
5) This is the first day of public school.
6) My niece and nephew began their first day of school at a new school.
7) We will begin our third year of homeschooling next Tuesday.
8) This is the first year that our grass isn't brown in August!
9) This is the first time in a long time that I have talked to all of my sisters in one day and no one ticked the other off!!!
10) Tonight the Democratic Convention will begin in Denver. They will be nominating the first black man for President. Why he picked Joe Biden and not Hillary I will never understand...I'm just saying.

So there's my little list of "first".

Oh, by the way, I made it known in my last post that I didn't want my GWTW stuff sold in a garage sale...I want it all to go to Nancy Sapp Purdy. I know that she has coveted it for a couple of months now. Your welcome Nancy!! LOL!!!

Cleaning and Counting Down

Yesterday, I cleaned Mom's house. It was something that I needed to do. I tell you...she was the basket and "little" wooden shelf queen! She also collected Santas so we have quite a few of those.

And for a little, bitty woman she had a TON of clothes. She owned enough tank tops to clothe Cedar Creek Lake!!

The sisters and I will be having a garage sale in a few weeks. For the record...when I die...DO NOT SELL MY "GWTW" STUFF IN A GARAGE SALE! Make sure you sell it to a GWTW collector and get a GOOD price!!!

Anyway...

We are almost ready for school, 2 weeks and counting. Actually, we have everything and could begin tomorrow if we wanted but mentally I don't think either of us are ready. Everything the past couple of weeks has all run together. It's like I've lost time somewhere and can't figure out where it went.

And no...I'm NOT having a blond moment!!

Not to mention we've stayed up late watching the Olympics. Leslie over at Recovering Noah is trying to get reimbursed from Michael Phelps for losing sleep and neglecting her family!
She is such a mess!

My brother in-law, Michael. We have to many Michael's in our family. My husband, Mike, our son Michael and the bro in law, Michael. His last name is Krywucki (Crywookie) people call him Wookie, like Chewbaca...He's a pretty big guy but not as hairy. In fact he doesn't have much hair at all. Anyway, he sent me a link to some GWTW checks! I had not seen them before. They are so adorable! You can also get the little stickers with your address on them.

Mike, my husband, not the son or bro in law, said "I have to look at those two enough as it is, I refuse to use them as legal tender......" shame on him!!! I might have to order one box.

Counting days...

It's been 15 days since Mom died. I keep expecting her to come barging through the door, dropping her purse into the recliner and asking what's for dinner.

I keep waiting to hear her honk as she drives by then Amanda or I would call her and ask "Just where are you going"? Then she would laugh that cackling laugh!

The sisters and I will be going to her house to go through things. I just keep thinking that if we take care of the place and water the flowers that she will come home soon. Like she's on vacation or something...

Anyway...life goes on.

I have been trying to get school lessons together for school in September. We'll be getting together with some friends for science and history may be a booger this year! From looking at my lesson planner, Amanda will be a busy little 5th grader!

She'll be going through the Bob Jones 5th grade curriculum except for science and history. Those subjects she'll be using Apologia Astronomy and American History from Beautiful Feet. Plus we are adding AOP Elementary Spanish. So begins another year of homeschooling.

August 3rd was my 2nd bloggin' anniversary! I kind of forgot about it. So much has happened in a year. Michael went to GFA and India. Amanda is now a tween. I went through some sort of funk. But there will be many first from now on though. The first Thanksgiving and Christmas without Mom, things like that.

We've been up late every night since 8/8/08. All we have done in the evenings is watch the Olympics! It kind of convicts you to get in shape after watching gymnastics and swimming events...well, not so much really.

Wow, I jumped from death to homeschooling then to the Olympics must be the ADD.

We did it for real...

Remember this?? http://dreama-coop.blogspot.com/2008/04/we-buried-momma-on-sunday.html

That day was funny! Mom and I had a good time with it! Everyone thought she was nuts for doing it but I'm glad I got to help her out with it.

This time it was for real though. Mom passed away on July 29, 2008. We buried her Aug. 1, 2008. The sisters and I had to come together and make some tough decisions. But the tougher part is yet to come.

The day to day routines we will try to get back into: work, school and our families. The past three weeks have been like a blur. The last thing Amanda and I did with Mom was eat at the Tea Room here in town.

Our Mom was the glue that held our little family together. Now we have to try and make it without her. She was my best friend! I don't know how to do it. I keep thinking that we have relatives that smoke, drink, have done drugs and they are still alive. Mom didn't do any of that and look what happened.

We have had lots of family support over the past few weeks and for that we are very appreciative.

The funeral was nice...as far as funerals go. Our cousin did a slide show to music for us. Mom loved to hear Barbara Streisand so we used a couple of her songs. Our great uncle did some of the service then my husband Mike did the rest. They both did a good job.

At the visitation there were 225 lines signed in the book and it was standing room only at the funeral. It was very humbling to see all of the people that Mom touched.

As for the relationships with my sisters...I talked to the youngest and we are ok. The other two I still have to talk with. If this is the way the God wanted us to make up and get along with one another, He could have found another way to do it.

I'm not angry or mad at God for allowing this to happen. I'm just not seeing the point of it right now. What would His purpose be for this? What lesson am I suppose to learn??

Anyway...I love you Mom and you will be deeply missed!!!!!!

It's been a long week...

So if none of this makes sense, you'll know why. We, our entire family have been spending day and night at the ICU waiting room.

My mom, the crazy woman that I sometimes write about here is very sick. For the last couple of weeks she had been sick off and on.
Last week I took her to the ER, then she was sent over to the hospital where surgery was done at 12:51am. What they found was a tumor that had been causing blockage in her intestines.
Early Monday morning of this week to many things came together to cause trouble for mom.

1) ARDS Adult Respiratory Disorder Syndrome
2)Sepsis-Sepsis is a serious medical condition characterized by a whole-body inflammatory state (called a systemic inflammatory response syndrome or SIRS) caused by infection.[1][2] The body may develop this inflammatory response to microbes or their toxins in the blood or tissues. The related layman's term is blood poisoning.
3)The tumor they found is cancerous. Don't ask me what kind, all I know its a very rapid cancer.

Even if Mom were to get through the ARDS the Onocologist only gave her 6 months.
In other words...Mom needs a miracle.

I know without a shadow of a doubt that God can deliver her from ALL of this. I am praying that it is His will is to do that, but I don't know his will. I also know that you can't make deals with God. But your mind always goes in that direction.

All of this hasn't just affected me. Mom has many cousins who have sat with us in the waiting room, helped out by staying the night so that we could go home and get some sleep, brought food, snacks, candy or whatever we needed or wanted. For that, we will be forever grateful!

This is the first time that my sisters and I have actually been together in the same vicinity since our big blow up. So far one of them will not look me in the eye. I am trying to show her the love of God and I believe she may have seen that when our church family came up there and stayed until 3:30-4:00am in the morning with us.

I pray that God will heal Mom and somehow use this to bring our family closer together. Because if Mom leaves us then all we have is each other.

Big Day for Little Girl

It's not the first day of school instead it's the first day of a 2 day church camp. My little girl is staying at a camp with some of her little girl friends. Thank goodness it's only about 10 minutes from the house in case we get a call in the middle of the night!

This is the first time she has stayed away at a camp without her parents. I'm praying that things will go good for her. Remember this camp only last until Saturday around noon.

Please Lord, don't let her fall off the top bunk!!! She's hard headed but it's a tall bunk bed!!!

I'm not sure who's more nervous...Amanda or me.

I finally found some time to post some pictures from our family vacation! We had a fantastic time! And we didn't miss the Shamu show!! It's nice to get away from all of the hustle and bustle and stress but it's always good to come back home.

The rest of our pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11736765@N00 if you want to check them out.

It's taken me days to be able to do this. Mike has worked from home and he takes up TOO much bandwidth!!

Some more ramblin'

It's 2 days before our family vacation!!! I'm in the process of packing, washing, deciding what's for dinner, watching The Jonas Brothers, Camp Rock (10 year old daughter) and making my list of what I need to do.

The past few weeks we have been pretty lazy actually. Amanda is still doing math and reading 3 days a week. We've been in the back swimming, laying out and doing yard work. Some how I intend on having the Garden of Eden!!!

In between being lazy, swimming, church, and yard work I have discovered my new favorite show!!!

I love HGTV!! You can get some great ideas from some of the shows. One show that I've started watching this season is Design Star! This is the 3rd season it's been on. Mom has watched the past two seasons and has turned me onto it.

It's kind of like Dancing with the Stars but these people design rooms, houses, and spaces.
They compete in order to get their own TV show on HGTV. At the end of the show one of the contestants gets kicked off.

Last night we watched and one of the designers is from Texas. I tell you, he thought he had designed the best space and was pretty cocky about it.

NEVER be cocky when you only weight 70 pounds and a sissy!! This dude bawled like a baby on national TV. It was better than Survivor!!!

Anyway, check the show out on Sundays! Have a great and safe 4th of July also!!!

Sweet Nibblets

WOW! It's a little dusty around here! Better get the canned air and clean it up a bit! We have been blowing and going, doing yard work, setting up a pool and enjoying our time together.

In a few weeks we will be heading to San Antonio! Watch out Shamu!! We are excited to get away and spend some family time together. I know I've heard people at church complain about not having enough time with their husband and families, I've griped about that also so we are purposely heading to where no one else will be so that we can be together.

Our 3 day school week has been shot this week. First a funeral, a visit from my father in-law and picking out a car thru an online auction. Hopefully, we will find one we like and can afford. We have a rule in our house that we've always have gone by...our car payment CAN NOT be more than our house payment. And since our house payment is a small one...

We are on our second week of Becoming a vessel God can use. It's amazing how God uses imperfect people. This week we studied Rahab. There she was living a ungodly life in a pagan country but she knew that God had promised the land to the Israelites. She committed treason to help them and saved her family in the process.

She was a prostitute. I wonder if she ever got rid of that "label"? God saw fit to put her in the blood line of Jesus though. I wonder why Moses wasn't labeled a "murderer"? or why David wasn't labeled an "adulterer"?

Wonder if it's because we women use labels and men don't? Or if labels matter more to women then men. We women are weird creatures! Why don't we let go of things like that?

More questions, still waiting for answers...

We are pretty much set for 5th grade next year. We are looking forward to getting together with a group of people to do Science. And History will be a blast! Time consuming, but a blast!

Amanda will be taking Spanish using SOS Elem. Spanish. Science will be Apologia Astronomy and History we'll be going thru the Beautiful Feet Early American History. Everything else we stuck with Bob Jones. Our first day will be Sept. 1st.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for now. We are still around just enjoying our time together!

Nothing to blog about...

It's been a while since I've blogged.

I think the fun is wearing off of it.

Much to the dismay of my daughter, we are still doing Math, Reading, our new Bible study for moms and daughters and Spelling. We're only doing these subjects 3 days a week but it is killing her! Oh the life of a 10 year old!!!

We started our Women's Bible study last night. "Becoming a vessel God can use" I'm truly excited about it. The first week talks about perfection and imperfection. How God uses people that you would never believe He could use.

I fit in that category.

All of us do.

The question is: Do I really want to be used?

Do I really want to "put" myself out there? Both emotionally and spiritually??? And risk being rejected again. Not to mention the emotional roller coaster that goes along with all of the drama??

The lesson that I've learned in the last eight months is if you keep to yourself, it's safer!

Many questions, just waiting for answers...

Can I pick them or what!!!

WOOOOHOOOOOO!!! Another season of DWTS is over. The two that I picked and cheered for all season ended up as #1 and #2. Now, what to watch?? Hello HGTV!!!

Our busy week

WHEW!!! This week has gone by FAST!!! It was busy, tiresome and we didn't get ANY school completed. SO, that means we get to extend our school year by a week or two. Here are some pictures from all the excitement.

Julie and her boys have been raising caterpillars. They finally created their cocoon. This was so cool!

After lifegroup on Thursdays, some of us head out to find nourishment. Here's Buddy's dinner which he ate after 10 o'clock.
Let sleeping babies lye. We watched our friends children at the beginning of the week and had a good time.
OK, we were in Walmart tonight and noticed these shirts. OP, Can you believe it??? Mike wore these in the 80's!
Everything comes back around.
Saturday night, "Common Saints" the band at our church played at the Servant in Kaufman. This stain glass light is in the bathroom. The bathroom was great! So is the whole place. If your in Kaufman be sure to stop by. Here's the site: http://www.theservantsbookstore.com/home.asp

Tomorrow, back to normal. School, yard work and pool cleaning! It looks like we will have hot enough weather to actually get in...WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Be Fruitful and WHAT?????

Today is only Tuesday and I feel like it should be Friday. Our household changed Sunday evening with the addition of 5 extra kids. Some friends of ours went to Florida for the week and her plans for the kids kinda went astray when her primary baby sitter came down sick.

So Mike told them just to let the kids stay with us. My cousin and I are working out exchanging the kids during the week.

Now, my husband and I have been blessed with 2 beautiful children. God knew that we could handle those blessings even if they were 10 years apart.
I was 21 when we had our first and 31 when the second showed up. At 41, I realize that I am in no position to add any more blessings to our household.

I had completely forgotten how you have to WATCH little ones. I had forgotten how they are under foot. How your house isn’t picked up and things aren’t in their rightful spot.
The two little ones are cute, though. Except for the potty and diaper thing. I have a gag reflex thing going on and I just can’t do it. Thank God, Mike ended up working from home both days.

The littlest boy, who is precious, does go to the potty. He will say “I have to go bad”. So you’re off and running to the bathroom. He had a pretty bad night last night due to coughing. We were up most of the night with him while all of the others slept. For some reason, kids have always “puked” on Mike and last night was no exception.

I totally respect mothers of multiples. I do not see how they do it. The diapers, coughs, medicine, messes, snot, poop and what about school? Needless, to say, Amanda and I will be taking the week off from school…How do you homeschool your kids when you have little ones?? Do you have to get up at 3:00am to get started??? Cause I think that’s what time we went to sleep after all of the coughing.

How do they take a shower, brush their teeth and get dressed??? I did brush at 11:00 but I’m still in my PJ’s.

I remember when Amanda was 2 or so. She loved “The Wizard of Oz”. We watched it for 2 years!!! “Oh what a world”!!! The little ones in this family are into “Toy Story 2”. Do you know how many times in 2 days I’ve seen “Toy Story 2”?????? LOL!!!

Don’t get me wrong…I’m not gripping cause I know there are people who are more than willing to help out with all the kids. I'd help out again if they needed. It's been an adventure especially with the little ones. They think their mom has gone to Wal Mart for a long time. Actually, she's been known to spend quite a long time in there.

I’m just totally realizing how blessed I am! Some people have multiple blessings, I only needed 2.

The Church of Oprah Exposed

WOW! I saw this on Dale's Space and thought I would share it also.

M'Lords & M'Ladies

Yesterday, a group of homeschooling families attended the Scarborough Fair in Waxahachie, Tx.
We had a good time even if it rained. I ended up carrying my weight in mud on my shoes. Well, not really but it felt like it!!

Before we went to this event we got together and did small lesson about certain things during that time period.
I didn't realize that "tarot cards, psychic readings and fairies" were a big deal during that time.
It really kind of gave me the creeps. All that "Mystical stuff".

We did find out what all the fox tales and animal skins were about.
During that time, people, including royalty had lice. They wore the animal skins thinking
that the little critters would attach themselves to the skins.
Makes me itch just thinking about it!!!
We saw all sorts of characters: King Henry VIII, one of his wives, court jesters, knights, fairies
and the Pope. I guess he was the Pope, he looked like the Pope, he was about as old as the Pope.

Not to mention, a miniture "ruby". Ruby is the name of a guitar that belongs to one of the elders at church.
So that pictures for you Buddy.
We also noticed the belly dancers. Belly dancing during the Renaissance Period?? I haven't looked that up yet.
Needless to say, none of us took advantage of the free lessons they were giving.
The kids had a good time, though. Amanda wanted to go back the next day! I was exhausted from hauling all that mud around!
Here are a few pictures from our adventure.