I am one proud mom

I am proud of my Chey baby for having her own thoughts and being able to express them well. She is a teen that has a voice. Not a bad voice but rather one that can share her own opinions in a nice forum in a nice (yet debatable manor). Did I say debate? Cheyenne LOVES to debate. Hereditary? Yes, those genes do pass well in our family.

Here is Chey's new site that she put up

http://organicpotatochips.blogspot.com/

Here are some other sites of Chey's. She is my kid and I am so happy!

http://www.cafepress.com/happyskullstees - her art on shirts

http://right-field-dandies.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/rightfielddandies

http://hs.facebook.com/profile.php?id=904020573

Anticipation- Is this normal?

I have no idea how this idea came to mind but for some reason I started jotting down the grades of my children when the babies start Kindergarten in 3 years.

Wyn 11th
Jo 8th
Gab 6th
Jed 3rd
Babies K

I couldn't stop... I was consumed by checking what grades I would have. It looked so wonderful to me as the grades grew.....

Wyn 12th
Jo 9th
Gab 7th
Jed 4th
Babies 1st

Jo 10th
Gab 8th
Jed 5th
Babies 2nd

Jo 11th
Gab 9th
Jed 6th
Babies 3rd

Jo 12th
Gab 10th
Jed 7th
Babies 4th

Gab 11th
Jed 8th
Babies 5th

Gab 12th
Jed 9th
Babies 6th

Jed 10th
Babies 7th

Jed 11th
Babies 8th

Jed 12th
Babies 9th

Babies 10th
Babies 11th
Babies 12th

so... in 2022 I will be alone :( What started as a refreshing thought of less work and chore turned into the dreadful thoughts of all of my children grown.

Q&A Habit Forming

What's your morning routine? coffee- I call it "prevention"
What's your bedtime routine? tv wind down for me, maybe a lil scrappin', lil bloggin'
What's missing from your daily routine? a schedule! lol - I like them but they end up hurting me

What is a habit you're working hard to develop? a schedule - see above, things related to twin toddlers, finding a better nap routine habit for them also.
What is a habit you're working hard to break? things related to twin toddlers

At your favorite restaurant, do you always order the same thing or do you try the special? same - always - I WANT change but cannot do it
What things do you buy at the grocery store every single time you go? cereal, bread, cheese ... a yummy exotic juice to drink while driving home
What would someone close to you say is your most annoying habit? talking
Which outside forces have the biggest impact on your routines? kids - inside or outside, they force just the same!
Describe the person you know who is most driven by habit. HEHEHEHEHE - HELLO MRS DAY PLANNER! I KNOW YOUR READING!

and now a layout to share from Round 4 of the Ms. Scrap-Tastic 2008

a post, a thank you, a layout and a warning!

I am posting my first post since the day I thought in which I was dying. De came over on Thursday and I thought I was feeling bad. I guess I was feeling great compared to what I would be feeling. I was asleep by 6 pm and didn't awake until Sat mid day. I thank De for being so kind to listen to my death bed whining and for bringing me oranges and juice.

I was able to get out of my bed mode for a time to create this layout about Wisconsin. http://www.scrap-tastic.com/pages/gallery_detail.cfm?galleryID=5146

Rules were: to create a LO that captures the personality of the city or state or country in which you live. Your LO may be 8.5 or 12 x 12 but must be a single page. Be sure your LO is about the above theme (place).
Include one non-scrapbook item in your LO and list that item in the LO description. Include at least five sentences of journaling.

Now to the warning: Take a look at the girls (aka my cometition) over @ Scrap-Tastic. I know that one of them is up to no good. Seriously, <@I KNOW I WAS POISONED>!!

Girl Power

For A Fancy Word For Simple blog we were to come up with: 1 song 1 book title 1 movie that show girl power!
song: Me & Bobby McGee- I can sing to Janice any day any time! That girl has some soul and makes you feel like a woman that can conquer it all.
book: Nancy Drew - she rocks
movie: Powerpuff Girls - Buttercup kicks

Girl Power Questionairre

Today's challenge? A Questionairre. Twenty Questions about being a GIRL.

1. Name - Karen
2. Pink - Love it or Hate it? Love it!
3. Signature shade of lipstick, lipgloss, etc. Mary Kay
4. Do you have a best girl friend? Yes
5. Do you have a woman mentor? Yes, thanks Joyce!
6. Are you a woman mentor to someone else? Yes
7. Tomboy or Princess? In between
8. Favorite Girl Band - Cindy Lauper
9. Are you a mom? Do you want to be one? Yes
10. Do you and your mom have any rituals? We did
11. Fashion magazines - yea or nay. Ideas! Yes!
12. Do you have a feel good outfit? Yes
13. Have you called your grandma or special aunt, or special older lady lately? Yes
14. Signature Scent? Victoria Secret
15. Favorite female tv character -Hannah Montana
16. Favorite place to hang out with gal pals? at the movies
17. Did you ever ditch your girl friends to be with a guy? Do you still? in the past
18. Friend you call when you need a laugh? thanks Deanna - for this morning
19. Friend you call when you need a shoulder to cry on? thanks Deanna - for this morning
20. Have you reminded your friends of how much they mean to you lately? Yes!!!

It's a sad day when kittens jump

Here we sit at 11:30 pm in silence. No kitties meowing. Mama cat sad. The story goes like this.
In June we bought our home and moved in. Along with it came a stray young cat. It kept coming up on our deck. It was so skinny so we fed it. We noticed we were feeding it well because it grew fast. Realization came that this sweet cat was pregnant. Great! I thought. I did not even like cats. We are allergic! We had a Siamese once a couple years back but with that breed we had no problems. That cat died from a chocolate ice cream overdose when my 19 yo son left his big custard container in the driveway when he came home from working at Culver's. After that I swore (opps, swearing again. I know, I vow to never swear again) we would never do cats again.
So, here is this fat mama cat. What do we do? Should we call the human society? I did. They keep cats in no kill but are back logged. Some cats and kittens have been there for years! In cages, for years. I would feel terrible if I let this mama cat and kittens live in cages. So I went door to door asking if someone lost a pg cat. they said "If she is pg it isn't ours!"
That kills those options. The day came where she was to deliver. Mama cat lost one kitten (Lolly) that was the runt and the other 5 were fine. Those five turned into the sweetest darned cats ever. I think we fell in love. - yes - I am still in denial you know. Panther (Jed's), Bubbles (Josey's), Poet (Wynter's), Garfunkel (Cheyenne's) and Elmo (Gabby's). The oldest kids each had their own kitten.... for a time. Only for a time we said. They would grow up and find new homes. That day approached and we were getting ideas on what to do with them. Cheyenne's friend wanted Panther so he is on hold until Sunday which is his pick up day. Today was the big day. Why today? The kittens are jumping out of their play center that Dan built in our garage. He made a pen out of dry wall and they had their own little home/area near our garage door. Who knew that at 7 wks they could jump 2.5 feet.
I hated the thought of them getting injured because of jumping over the edge that was a big fall or getting into something in the garage. We put the thinking hats on. We took 3 kittens to the school in a box and walked into the superintendent's office. I told him to take a couple. He declined but it was a good try. Shot down! We drove to the Ford dealership where my husband manages. I called him on my cell telling him that I had a delivery. I told him to take them to his employees and each one who takes a kitten would get a raise. Dan said that would be illegal. Darn! But... a bonus wouldn't be illegal, right? So, as we sat in the van Dan took the box of kittens in. We saw these men ooo'ing and awww'ing over those 3 cute kittens. Dan came back out in 5 minutes and said he thought 2 for sure were taken. By the time I got home Dan called saying to bring more cats because he ran out. lol. All 3 were taken. So still left were Panther awaiting his departure and Elmo. Elmo is a disabled special needs kitty. He has growth problems and a bad rear leg. He loves people and he just wants cuddled. I am not sure what will happen with our lil' Elmo. And poor Sugar. (Yes, we named mama cat Sugar cause she is so sweet). She felt so sad when I came home without her other 3 kittens.
While it is a sad and quiet night I am very relieved and thankful that we found them good homes. My kids were thinking up some serious schemes. My daughter told me about what her friend does to give away free things. It got them thinking. Their parents own the local Little Debbie distribution and when they have extra Little Debbie's they take them to their church and put them under the free sign that is up. Her friend said that they all get taken right away. My kids knew that Little Debbie was a good incentive to get people to take things so they were really contemplating putting these kittens inside of some empty Little Debbie boxes and putting them under the free sign at church. Hmmmm... would that be false advertising? lol On the fun side though, a kitten might have been named Little Debbie!

Week 1 @ A Fancy Word For Simple

This week’s theme: GIRL POWER. What do you love about being a woman? What do you despise?What are some of the challenges faced by women?Where have we been as a gender? Where are we headed?

That is this weeks theme. I may be a minority but my thoughts are this. Beware this can get deep but please love me despite my views.

I personally love being a woman that can be an at home mother and wife. I love this career and responsibility. To me this is the greatest job in the world. Raising my children as moral, loving and hard working people will hopefully be a huge impact on the world. I give a toast to all mothers who can stay at home with their kids and raise them. Children need their mothers. Husbands need their wives.

All creation has bonds with the mother. Even animals let their babies roam and play but they stay with their kids until they are fully ready for the world. They rarely get daycare to help. I think this rings true for humans as well. In my opinion, my kids can handle playing sports, being in plays, taking band lessons etc. But I do not agree that a child should have to take on the world and other people's morals 6-8 hrs each day and only being with their family for a mere few hours. In those few hours instead of relaxing and playing many times those hours are spent redirecting your families morals in your child.
I lived the life of both so I have been there when I had to reprogram my son and daughter as children, pre-teens and teenagers. There was no time in those after school hours for them or our family to just enjoy them being children.

I hope that no one takes my opinions as criticism because our freedom in this country is exactly that. "Freedom" of choice. I have freedoms to decide what I feel is best and the same with other women and their choices. I also understand that being a single mother or a families income is another factor of being able to do this. We did at one time however have 6 children with only my husbands income of under 30,000 per year. We re prioritized what was needed. Have you seen the tv show with the family of 12 children? They buy in bulk, lol

I despise that in this age more women feel the need for more power. I see many at home mothers feel less worthy about themselves. What is more powerful than raising a child/children to be a stand out unique soul in this country? Being an at home mother does not mean you cannot have other skills. And cooking and cleaning is not all that we do! We can write, we can create, we can help our soul mates be the leaders this land should have. This is a big burden on us at times but it is a very large role in life that we play.

Challenges, we have many but as I somewhat stated before, I think a big challenge is just being able to know what our life's goals should be. We have a need to feel good about our selves. While feeling good about ourselves is a wonderful thing I feel that it can be very selfish. Feeling good about what we do for others is (to me) a better focus. If we cared about others and the direction of our future we would in return feel as high as a queen.

Where have we been? I think we have been stuck. We have been queens in the home and queens in the workplace. We want them both but cannot have both lives. We have not been thinking of priorities but more of ourselves. -Ouch- don't throw stones now.

Headed? I think we will be headed into a more stuck position. Roles are being switched. What walk of life do "I" take to make my life complete? Do we see the animal kingdom changing gender roles. What animal lets the wife bring home the "bacon/pig" each day, every day? I am not saying that men cannot help in the home. Penguin males help with their children as many species do. Men should help us with the responsibilities of the family but I for one will not give up my role as a woman. I want to be the "Vice President" in my home. Sorry Hillary.

Am I a submissive woman? Yes. Check out my blog though. Do I sound submissive? Submissive doesn't mean stupid, lower or quiet. It just gives me the chair "next" to the man instead of over or under the man.

A Fancy Word for Simple

so I just checked out this site from a link of Barbs. I like it. I think this blog will help me be
1. not a blog slacker
2. give thanks for simple things
3. take action on a few of life's issues
and...
4. find myself when I get lost

if you are interested in checking it out here is the link up: http://www.fancysimple.blogspot.com/

Keeping a Promise?

this has been on my mind lately. Do I swear to my kids? lol, ok, not that kind of swearing. Promises? Do you make them? Even making promises to our kids and not keeping them is wrong. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. When you make a promise to a friend, promise to pay a bill or promise to take our kids to a movie.

I hear by will not make promises that I can not stand by. I will let my yes be a yes.

James 5:12 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

12Above all, my brothers, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned.

Memories

I just came across this photography essay I did 3 years ago. I totally forgot about it.

Fall Comes and Goes as FAST as it Came

What is it with fall? This season comes like a rush at the end of Sept and here it is mid Oct and it feels as if it is winter already. We had to have our heat turned on last night or we would have been frozen.
This week has been filled with sickness (flu? shhh... I know, I said the bad f word). Cheyenne and Jed got it on Monday and Gabby got it on Wednesday. Has it passed? Let's just say it isn't as fast as the passing of the season because they all still feel yuck. No one else has came down with it and I am praying that we don't! I have too much to do and this week has been lax with homeschooling since kids are sick. So, I have no time. I say it again: "no time for sickness!"

Scrap-Tastic Round 2

Here is the Scrap-Tastic challenge for Round 2. We were supposed to use 25% stamping on the layout and list what we would do to change the world.


This layout has journaling for 2 persons. One to my God and what I would love to change for Him and the same journaling to my oldest daughter in regards to what I would love to change to make her future brighter. Journaling reads: If I could change the world I would make it all pure and clean. Habitat full of green, beauty one has never seen. Your colors free to be shown. If I could change the world it would all be true, no lies no selfishness. It would all be for you.

Scrap-Tasticness

Scrap-Tastic is at it again! A beauty pageant. I am now going into Round 2 and I am hoping that they look at the inner beauty cause there is a lot of competition in this one. Come check out the talent!

Here is my Round 1 layout. We had to incorporate our fave scent by the colors we used and the overall feel of our layout.

Jack Johnson - Upside Down

what a happy song!