Merry Christmas!

Sorry to have fallen of the face of the Blog-world. Here's a picture to cheer you:

Merry Christmas!

I'm craving a Molten Lava cake, sigh...

I'd never had one before last Friday night, but, oh man, it was yummy. I had it at my Pampered Chef Party and I'm planning on buyting the dish to mae it in so we can have it any time we want at homme. Of course, that might EVERY day, lol. I'll have to keep the supplies on hand.

So anyway, if you need something go here and order it. Please!?! :)

Have some chocolate cake for me.

And she's back...

So last I left you, I was planning a road trip to take my children up to see my grandmother who wasn't doing well. Unfortunately, plans changed. My grandmother took a turn for the worse and things went downhill. On the day that I was to finish loading up to head out, I got a call that said to hightail it out there, Grandma was in the hospital and my step-mom, Margo, did not think she was going to make it much longer. My dad was in Colorado and was heading home as well, through a snowstorm. So the decision was made to leave my kids at home, pick up my aunt and cousin who live here in Palm Beach County and drive to Tennessee to pick up my cousin who lives there and head out to Arksansas. We drove straight through, about 22 hours, I think. We arrived at the hospital a couple of hours after my dad and about an hour before my grandmother breathed her last breath. We were so grateful to be able to be sitting with her as she left us. We spoke peace to her and prayed over her and loved her. We will miss her.

Last month, the week of her 81st birthday, we interred her with my Papa. So many family and friends came to celebrate her life with us. My grandmother loved everyone. She accepted you for who you are, even if she disagreed with your opinions (and believe me, she wasn't shy about speaking up for hers. Ask me how I know?) I will miss her. Today, she and Papa would've celebrated 61 years of marriage. I hope that they are celebrating with Jesus right now.

After my grandmother passed away, I fell deeper into a depression which I believe I had been slowly spiraling into. We've really struggled with finances, I've had some health issues, the girls have had some and Miguel is dealing with the possibility that he may have Celiac Disease. I tend to be an internalizer of emotions, this is not so good. I started taking Paxil about a month ago and life is beginning to look a bit brighter, thank goodness. I hope you all will forgive me for abandoning you for so long (I know that I don't have many followers, but I do have a faithful few and I appreciate you.) I hope to get back to my sunshiney self now.

Road Trip!!!!

My grandma has been in and out of the hospital and a rehab facility since Thanksgiving. It's been frustrating for my Dad (they are in Arkansas, and obviously, I'm not, lol) as he tries to deal with all the medical staff and decisions and etc and work full-time all the while he and my step-mom try to get a Bed and Breakfast up and running. So, I'm packing up the kids and their school books and myself and heading out to help in whatever way I can.

I'll be headed up to Jacksonville and then on to Nashville and then Bentonville (in NW Arkansas) at the end of March. I'll be there for a while, as long as necessary, anyways. I kept trying to figure out a good time to head out financially and timewise (appts and etc.) but I got a call from my cousin offering to keep the girls in Nashville while I go out there. I guess I figured that I wasn't really NEEDED, and there was always something going on down here, you know. But when she called me today, she really seemed concerned for my dad and my grandma. She has a preemie newborn and two older children in public school, so she just can't pick up and go. So, Miguel and I talked about it and the planning begins. Other than seeing my family, I hope that I get to meet up with a few of my online friends along the way, so give me a shout to let me know if you are up to lunch or coffee or whatever if you're in those areas. And pray for my sanity, k? I'm normally a "fly-by-the-seat of my pants" kinda girl, but I plan on doing school thru this one, since we don't know how long we'll be out there, so I've got some serious planning to do. Oh, and if we have to stay past the 15th of April, I'll be putting my oldest on a plane back home for testing. I don't normally test my children, but since he'll have to take standardized testing to get into college, I figured I might as well get on with it. Of course, now I'm smacking myself for not waiting one more year, but oh well! :p

Exciting news around here...well, if you like flushing anyways...

Almost nine years ago we bought our first home out here in the Acreage. We thought we'd love having the big yard, and we do, and we thought that having a well and a septic tank wouldn't be all that big of a deal, we were wrong. About a year after moving in, our drain field began to fail. Eventually, it just plain gave out and we resorted to pumping our septic tank every year, or more, babying it too keep it from being too bad. It's not been fun for us, but the price tag to repair/replace it ran about $5000. I don't know about you, but that kind of money is just plain hard to come by for us.

Finally, a plumber friend of my husband has taken pity on us and, in trade for some computer work, is helping us repair the drain field. We are basically bartering for most of the stuff, except the rock and sand for the bed of the drain field. But even that we are getting at a great price because of a friend who works for a company that provides that kind of stuff. We've bartered for everything else and done some work ourselves. I'll have to get some good pictures to post during the process. :) Maybe I'll end it with one of me flushing my toilet with sheer abandon, LOL. Okay, maybe not, but I will no longer fear nasty back up once it's done! The strange things that will bring a smile to a grown woman's face, sigh...

So, is it bad that your 10year old can recognize "White Wedding" in the first few notes?

I'm thinking it may not go over so well in our homeschool group, sigh...


Yes, we have Rock Band 2 and we play it, well, way too often, apparently. LOL.

My 13year old son just mentioned he wasn't born to play 80's metal. Well, no, DUH! You weren't born until 1995. He figures he's was born to play Eric Clapton, "slow hand". HA! That kid!

Actually, he's doing quite well teaching himself guitar. I'll have to see if I can figure out how to post some of his recordings. He's been searching out guitar tabs online or in some of our books and teaching himself. It's fun and interesting. Or not, but I can pretend, right? And it will last until Football tryouts and practices start, and then he'll obsess over football. LOL. Then he'll be showing me a bazillion and one plays that he's drawn up and tell me all the reasons that it will work and I'll be all like, "yeah, great Jake." As it all goes WAY over my head.

Monday Morning

February 23rd Questions:

1. Does blogging make you fat? Do you find yourself sitting around and eating more since you started your blog? Or do you get so caught up in the whole blogging routine that you forget to eat?

Blogging does not make me fat. I was fat before I started blogging. However, since I started blogging I've lost over 60 lbs. (actually, since May 16th of 2008) I don't get so caught up in blogging, I wish I would though. I start to feel guilty when I forget for, oh, a week that I need to post something. The worst thing is that during the day I'll have a great idea for a blog entry but by the time I get home, it's gone. Hopped a train to some far off corner of my mind, unreachable by a poor miserable wretch like me.

2. The one topic I will not touch on my blog is __________. Why? What sorts of topics do you receive the most comments on? What sorts of topics do you receive the least number of comments on?

I don't know, yet. I haven't done politics, mostly because there are a number of poly blogs out there that would do it sooo much better than me, it's not worth it. That may change, who knows.

3. Spring is coming. How is your wardrobe? What sorts of clothes do you usually wear in the spring? Where do you normally shop for your clothes? How successful are you in finding clothes for yourself?

Spring is here. I live in South Florida. We had the requisite 3 or 4 days of winter and now it's spring. Check out my mulberry tree for proof:

SEE!?! Berries are on the way. As for clothes, well I pretty much just wear the same ones I wear in the winter, without the sweaters and the jackets. It's all good. Shopping since losing the 60 lbs is sooooo much easier, but I'm not doing that for a little while. Another 30 or so pounds and I'll need a shopping trip to tide me over till I reach goal. Otherwise, I'm making do. Clothes are $$$, you know.

4. We should treat every day as a special gift - we’re alive, right? What made this past week special for you? (And if you’ve already talked about that special something on your blog, then think of something else - something little perhaps, but had a big impact on you or your loved ones).

This past week is special because I have my family. All of my immediate family and most of my extended family. I love them, all of them. Other than that, this past week has been boring, maybe we'll get something more exciting this week, hmm?

Wordless Wednesday

For more Wordless Wednesday

I spent a boatload of money today, sigh...

Well, more than I'm used to spending lately, anyways.


It all started with paying the bills, you gotta do that at least once a month, right? We like lights and telephones and all, you know.

So then the next thing was scheduling the Minuscule Pupster, aka Minnie for surgery. Shhhhh, we don't want her to hear. You know? THAT surgery, uh huh, the one that ensures no other minuscule dogs will be entering our lives. Cause, while she's cute (picture evidence provided)
See? She's adorable, we don't want anymore. We've got the "Big Dogs" also, and three is definitely enough. She hit the nine month mark and promptly "became a grown up" so to speak, :( So any way, I'm scheduling that surgery, ASAP. Technically I haven't spent that money yet, but it's "spent" :P

Then, I gather the troops and we head off to the pet store to purchase her new collar. I'm sure she'll be thrilled once we strap that baby on her. See, we have an invisible fence. It works great for the big dogs, but we have yet to train Minnie to it because she was too young. But now, bwaaahaaahaaa, zap zappity zap. Okay, not really. We'll humanely train her by putting the nifty white flags up and walking her and letting her know where her boundaries are. Then eventually removing the flags in an appropriate pattern until she has learned the boundaries of "her yard". It will be nice not to have to chase her across the street anymore. So there was nice pretty penny or 7000 or so. :( Still cheaper than a real fence.

So then it's off to shop for shoes for the older daughter. Let's just say, that was fun, NOT! And a hair cut for Jacob. He seriously needed that. Then off to Costco. Let's just say I very nearly quit breathing at the check out. Oh, my. Not that we didn't need it, but we've been living on bare bones for so long, sigh, that amount was a real shocker. Then I headed off to Albertson's to grab a few things that were amazing deals, like the ribs that were buy 1 get 2 free. I'm sure that they were marked up some, but still a great deal. Now my freezers and fridges are full for the first time in a very long time. So, I spent a boatload of money today and I'm good with that.

Another Day in Paradise

Actually, it was a good day.

We did not do any "real" school, but we did learn some things. I think the very best part of the day was listening to my 13yo son giving his sisters a music lesson today. A few years ago, my husband began teaching my ds a little bit about guitar. My son, Jacob, then became obsessed with learning as much as he could on his own. He studied and practiced and now has a pretty good basic understanding. Perhaps he'll go further and choose more advanced learning. We'll let him make that decision. But, even if he doesn't, he'll be able to impress the girls ;)

We did get the living room cleaned up, well, everything except my new desk. It's amazing how fast things can pile up. Crazy even. Speaking of my "new" desk, here it is:


Cool, eh? Dual monitors! I'm so geeky, lol. Here are some more photos of all the moving around I posted about earlier this week.



This is my old computer desk with the computer the girls use. Looks pretty good there.

This is what my son got out of all the moving around of furniture and computers. It's a hutch from an old computer desk that fell apart during one of the many furniture moving adventures (my dh NEEDS to move furniture at least every 6 months or so). I think it looks pretty good up there and gives him some much needed shelf space.

And the reason for all this switching and moving:
Our new network server/media center connected to the big TV in the living room. It has multiple internal drives and an external hard drive. He has some other internal drives that he wants to convert to externals, something about IDE something or another. I'm really not that geeky, y'all. :D But I do love my dual monitors!!

Wordless Wednesday: I went back in time for this one!

Another Bloggy Giveaway. How about 100 Calorie Little Debbie Snacks?

So, I was bouncing around the web, as I am wont to do. My dh would say I do that to much, but what does he know, hm? So, I'm surfing away, through the waves of FABULOUS bloggy giveaways and I found this site. Now, I ask you, what is better than A Box of Chocolates? NOTHING, right? Well, there may be a few things, but A Box of Chocolates sure beats out just about anything else :)

Mel, over at A Box of Chocolates, is giving away, ready for it?

A Box of Chocolates!

Okay, not really a box of chocolates, only. But there's quite a bit of chocolate in there along with some peanut butter and other yummy sugary treats. But, get this, if you eat them like you are supposed to, each serving is only a hundred calories! YUM! That's like ten minutes on the stationary bike. Anybody can do that! So, head on over to see Mel at A Box of Chocolates and enter for a box of chocolate (and other yummy goodness!)

Bloggy Giveaways: My Fruit Rollups

Over the next few days I'm going to be blogging about some great giveaways at other blogging sites. This week is the 1st of this year's quarterly giveaway carnivals over at Bloggy Giveaways.com

Today:

My Fruit Rollups!

OK, these are so cool, I think I might buy a box for each of the kids' birthdays this year! Check them out and then head over to A Nut in a Nutshell and sign up for the giveaway (or don't, cuz I wanna win it, lol)!

If I win, I'm going to use the blank canvas with the three spots to put pics of each my dc as a surprise reward! I imagine Jacob will be a bit freaked out at first and the girls will think it's the coolest thing since Pokemon. Here's hoping I win (or at least someone I know wins.)

Change You Can Believe In.

LOL, sorry, I couldn't help myself.


This weekend my dh and I made some changes. We've been discussing a lot of "how-to save money" ideas. We want to pay off debt and make some very needed home improvements, like a new drain field for our septic system that is barely functional and replacing baseboards that have been missing for about 3 or 4 years. You know, nothing important or anything.

One of the things we've discussed is suspending our satellite during non-football months of the year. Seeing as the only reason that we have the satellite is for our Sunday Ticket, this seems like a great way to save some money. Come August, we'll have them reinstate and suspend it again after the Super Bowl. Sounds crazy, huh? Well, when you have one fan of the Oakland Raiders, one fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars, one fan of the Arizona Cardinals and one fan of the Miami Dolphins (dd#2 hasn't picked yet, she goes through a progression of teams, whatever, lol) you need satellite to see them all.

So anyways, in preparation for the big "cut off" we've discussed our options. We have a tv in the living room that we can connect to a computer to watch Netflix movies and most of the tv shows are online now (the only ones we'll miss are the Law & Order shows, as they don't seem to upload those for online viewing sadly). But we didn't want to spend money, seeing as the purpose of all this is to SAVE MONEY, right? We have DSL and plenty of computers.

In fact, we actually had more computers in the house than people. *GASP* ;-) So, here's the solution. The girls' computer was built by my dh in 1999 and was pretty much a dinosaur. Upgrading it was not an option, so we pulled it out and put the computer that was in the living room in their room. They also got my old desk as their student desk was old and not designed for a computer. Jacob's computer got updated to 2 gigs of RAM, can you imagine how excited he is? Yes, imagine the dancing (Chooga?) baby here, lol! He also got an old hutch that we saved from a broken down desk that was trashed a long time back and I had been using on my desk hidden away in a corner of our bedroom. I got the living room desk for my laptop along with a secondary monitor, how cool is that? I look like an extreme geek now! Dh has the same on his desk with his laptop and secondary monitor, except he really is a bit of an extreme geek, lol. And the TV in the living room got dh old Extremely powerful, full of memory tower that will be our network server to save music, video, pictures and anything else we'd like to save and share with the rest of the family. Oh, and dh and I have more of our bedroom back to encourage peace and tranquility!

Now, THAT'S change you can believe in.

Thursday Thirteen

so, I'm trying to be a better blogger, whatever that means, :) And I figure it won't hurt to jump on the meme bandwagon. So here's my first go at a Thursday Thirteen. What shall I write 13 things about? How about 13 things I(we) do to save money?

1. I use The Grocery Game to stock up on sale items that my family loves.
2. I use lots and lots of coupons, for everything.
3. This year, we are trying to make it through the months of Jan & Feb w/out using our heat (it is South Florida, after all.)
4. I am diligent about combining errands to limit gas usage in my van. When you live in the semi-boonies like we do, you don't think anything of driving 20 miles to shop or visit the doctor.
5. We don't eat out more than once or twice a month (considering we used to eat out 2 or 3 times a week, we are really saving right there.)
6. I buy kid-type gifts when they are on clearance and keep them in my closet for birthdays that come around during the year.
7. Live by the motto: Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.
8. Switched to lower watt light bulbs.
9. Keep the temperature on the thermostat at 78 degrees during the summer and keep the curtains drawn during the hottest part of the day.
10. Buy in bulk if that is the cheapest way to purchase a consumable good.
11. Eat healthier! Less process foods, more fruit (but only fruit in season, it's cheaper.)
12. Visit Starbucks A LOT LESS OFTEN and when I go, get a regular coffee instead of my yummy froufrou drinks (better for my waistline, too!)
13. And most importantly, keep my dh out of the electronics store! :) J/k, sort of! Hey, honey, did you hear Circuit City is liquidating? Can I have a new laptop? How about an I-Pod Touch?

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Moving My Ramblings!

For the last two-and-a-half years I have blogged over at homeschoolblogger.com. I learned many things over there about blogging and html, but now I've decided to pack up my ramblings and move them to a new home to corral all of my blogs in the same place (besides it's a whole lot easier to change your template here at blogger ;) ). And, so, here I am.

I hope that I make new friends, while cherishing the old. And I hope that my ramblings will become more frequent here in their new home. Here's to blogging!

Wordless Wednesday

Floridians live for days like these!

It's a lovely day in S. FL. Seriously! I feel for you guys up north with your 0 degree days, but when you guys are hunkering down trying to stay warm, well...it means we can go outside at noon without bringing along a gallon of water.

I'm actually sitting on my back porch enjoying the wind blowing and the lower temperatures. We don't do a lot of school this time of year because I literally toss my dc out the back door to play, lol.

Rest assured, come June, July and August we will be cramming a lot of school in. The only way I'll be able to get my dc outdoors then is if it's into the A/C of the car to the A/C of wherever we are going. And, honestly, can't say as I blame them. :-)

Blessing my husband, because I was blessed!

Today I had to go to the doctor. UGH! Diagnosis: Double Ear Infection. Isn't that lovely? Wouldn't you like one, er, two??

So I decided to treat myself to a great big, humongous cup of Starbucks Pike with Sugar Free Cinnamon Dolce syrup. YUM. Please note that I said "Sugar Free" That's because I'm on a weight loss program and I've lost 60lbs, thankyouverymuch.

Sooooo, anyways, as I'm waiting for my order to be filled, the gentleman next to me (obviously a regular customer) asks "So, what are those cupcakes for?" Apparently he could see some cupcakes on the counter behind the baristas and they said that they were new cupcake flavors that they were tasting before they began selling them. Chocolate and red velvet cupcakes, mmmmm. Well, this very charming gentleman managed to finagle a taste for himself, quite charmingly. All the while, I was chuckling(I mentioned he was charming, right?) I went over to the condiment table to add a little sweetener and half-n-half and I hear over my shoulder "pst, come back over, I'm working a deal for you." LOL He convinced them to give me a sample taste, as well.

Now, remember that I mentioned the "Sugar Free Cinnamon Dolce" and the whole 60 lbs thing. I didn't want to appear ungrateful or rude, that whole "Southern in-breeding" and all. So what do I do??? I thought, Hey, I'll just take it home to the dc. But there are THREE of them and only 2 half pieces of cupcakes. Sigh...Oh, hey, wonder where Miguel is right now? So, I called him. Turns out he was less than 5 minutes away at the hospital w/a "client" (I'll have to explain more about dh's job in another post). So, I asked him if he'd like some cupcakes and, well, I'm the only strangoid who'd turn down cupcakes, you know. So I took him some yummy FREE cupcakes and got to steal a moment alone :-) He was so thrilled, he bragged on me to his partner, lol. I've apparently gotten quite the reputation as a "dream wife", too bad I'm not as quite as good as my reputation, sigh...

Read Your Own Books 2009 Challenge.

Okay, so I have lots of books. Lots and lots. My beloved dh is very tolerant of my book addiction, though I understand there are people out there who have it worse than I do. I do get rid of books, mostly because I use Paperbook Swap to get more books. But I have dozens on my shelves just waiting to be enjoyed. So now I have a challenge to help me out. Of course, that doesn't preclude me from adding to the shelves, you know. LOL


So if you'd like to join in, as well, go here -




So, I've got a good start going already:


Night Light by Terri Blackstock
True Light by Terri Blackstock



Anyone want to join me?

Dude, they totally tagged me!

You Belong in 1988

Wild, over the top, and just a little bit cheesy. You're colorful at night - and successful during the day.

What Year Do You Belong In?


Well, maybe not totally.