Just had to share, I had the most fabulous Thanksgiving weekend with the family. That's why I haven't been spending much time on-line for the last few days. When I do manage to get a few moments to myself, I've been falling into bed completely exhausted from chasing around after five kids under the age of 11!



That's OK though, we had a marvelous time and the kids were awesome! I'm working on editing some of the pictures and putting a Whrrl story together to share with you, but here is a sneak peak.

There might be a darling baby like this:



A cute little redhead like this:



This couple of cutie patooties:



And even a familiar face or two:



There might be a visit to a children's museum, some sledding, or visit to the Christmas lights in there too.










































You might even find a picture of Nana in there - if you can find her under all the kids!

I'm still off-line, playing with the grandkids. We had a very nice Thanksgiving yesterday. Didn't to much, took the kids sledding and bummed around the house fixing the dinner and eating a lot. Today, we're going hiking, the girls are getting mani/pedi's and we're going to go downtown and see the lights. So here's an e-mail with some blonde jokes my sis sent me:

Two blondes living in Oklahoma were sitting on a bench talking, and
One blonde says to the other, 'Which do you think is farther away.... Florida or the moon?' The other blonde turns and says 'Helloooooooooo, can you see Florida ?????'

A blonde pushes her BMW into a gas station. She tells the mechanic it died. After he works on it for a few minutes, it is idling smoothly. She says, 'What's the story?' He replies, 'Just crap in the carburetor.'  She asks, 'How often do I have to do that?'

A police officer stops a blonde for speeding and asks her very nicely if he could see her license.
She replied in a huff, 'I wish you guys would get your act together. Just yesterday you take away my license and then today you expect me to show it to you!'

There's this blonde out for a walk. She comes to a river and sees another blonde on the opposite bank 'Yoo-hoo!' she shouts, 'How can I get to the other side? The second blonde looks up the river then down the river and shouts back, 'You ARE on the other side.'

A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind the wheel was knitting!
Realizing that she was oblivious to his flashing lights and siren, the trooper cranked down his window, turned on his bullhorn and yelled, 'PULL OVER!' 'NO!' the blonde yelled back, 'IT'S A SCARF!'

A Russian, an American, and a Blonde were talking one day. The Russian said, 'We were the first in space! The American said, 'We were the first on the moon! The Blonde said, 'So what? We're going to be the first on the sun!' The Russian and the American looked at each other and shook their heads. 'You can't land on the sun, you idiot! You'll burn up!' said the Russian.
To which the Blonde replied, 'We're not stupid, you know. We're going at night!'

A blonde was playing Trivial Pursuit one night.. It was her turn. She rolled the dice and she landed on Science & Nature. Her question was, 'If you are in a vacuum and someone calls your name, can you hear it?' She thought for a time and then asked, 'Is it on or off?'

A girl was visiting her blonde friend, who had acquired two new dogs, and asked her what their names were. The blonde responded by saying that one was named Rolex and one was named Timex. Her friend said, 'Whoever heard of someone naming dogs like that?' 'HELLLOOOOOOO......,' answered the blonde. 'They're watch dogs'

My son Matt and I had a "come to Jesus" talk the other day. He's been slipping a bit in school and needed a kick in the butt and I was definitely in the mood to give it to him. He promised to try harder and we set up a schedule to help him keep on track a bit better. But it reminded me of how difficult it can be to get teenagers to actually open up and tell you what the heck is going on in their minds.

Do you know how you get your kids to actually take the time to talk to you? It's pretty easy actually. You just make a date with them and take them out to dinner - just the two of you. Picture it, a special date with a daughter and her Daddy, all dressed up nice and in a nice restaurant. Or with a son and his mother out for a night at your favorite steakhouse? 

Even if you aren't getting along all that well, it gives you a nice neutral ground to just spend some time together and talk about whatever. I guarantee you'll learn all sorts of stuff and it gives the kid something every kid needs - it makes them feel important. For you to actually set aside a whole evening and spend it with just them, that makes them feel important. I wish my parents did this. I think it would have made a big impression on me.

I do this from time to time with my boys, but usually just at a fast food place, not a nice restaurant. I think this would make a great birthday tradition. Let them have their party and whatnot with their friends, but set this up for the night after or something. Wouldn't that be a special treat for both of you?

Couple of ground rules you'll want to establish:

- Make it a priority. Pick a night and stick to it. If you change it even once, it will take the "special" out of it.
- No cell phones - really! Seriously, both of you can live without your cell phones for a couple of hours. Otherwise, they will almost certainly be wanting to text back and forth with their friends and you'll likely get calls too.
- No griping about anything. This is a biggie. Even if you find out that your kid is interested in something you don't necessarily agree with or approve of, you'll spoil the mood if you start griping at them about stuff and then they'll clam right up.
- Pick the right place. You don't want someplace noisy or some place like a sports bar with TV's or other distractions. Obviously, you want to pick some place with food you're both going to like.
- It has to be just the two of you - one kid, one parent. No brothers, sisters, buddies, girlfriends, etc. No distractions, right?

Try it and come back and tell me all about it. Blake's birthday is next month, so I'll let you know how ours goes. Another two years and he'll be an official teen (yikes!), so I guess I'd better practice.

Again, I'm playing in MamaKats Writer's Workshop. One of her prompts was to detail an ER moment. Since we were just there yesterday, or at least at the InstaCare, I figured that was a pretty good match.

So, why were we in the InstaCare yesterday? Blake has managed to break a bone - again. If you will remember, he broke several bones in his foot the day before school started in August. Now, it isn't even Thanksgiving and he's managed to break his thumb. Fortunately, it's just a hairline fracture, but it's still another break. The sad thing, is that he broke it a week ago. Yes, say it with me Moms, a WEEK ago. I kept telling him it was just a sprain. To be fair, even the doctor thought that, until he saw the X-ray.

I think I was just in a state of denial over it because this may be a signal of something more serious. He's not an especially clumsy kid and he isn't necessarily a huge daredevil, although he is a little bit. But really the incidents that have caused three broken bones in as many years (he also broke his wrist on his first visit to the skate park), aren't necessarily ones that should have ended in broken bones.

They are talking about the possibility of a genetic disease, something that causes naturally thinner, more brittle bones. It's scary. It's incurable (now that's a scary word).

The only thing you can do is to be careful. No contact sports, no motorcycles (actually I'm OK with that one), no skate parks, probably no snowboarding, no daredevil maneuvers of any kind. Fortunately, he's not especially athletically inclined, but it's pretty harsh to tell an 11 year old boy that he's not going to be able to do all that stuff, maybe for the rest of his life.

And even if we do all that, there are still likely to be more breaks ahead, just from everyday things. A slip on the ice, a fall off a bike, a car accident. More casts, crutches, and who knows what? Broken bones are something you can't really negotiate with. Whatever the orthopedist says you have to do, you have to do. It breaks my heart.

So, all we can do is to try and keep positive. I don't know if I really want to get the testing for it. If there's nothing they can do medically, I don't really want to know any more about it. We have been lucky that he has made it this far without any very serious injuries and we'll just have to hope that this trend continues and if he does have breaks, they will be minor ones. Postive thinking has always worked well for me and I plan to continue it for as long as I can manage it and be thankful for a mostly healthy, happy, adorable son.

I got this cute little meme from Jennifer over at It's a Beauty Filled Life

1. Name someone with the same birthday as you.
I was born on John Lennon's 20th birthday.

2. Where was your first kiss?
I'm ashamed to say it was in the agriculture classroom (our school had a 4H program and I was dating a farmer - lucky me) and I know now that he wasn't a very good kisser. But the next guy was! I can still remember what a good kisser that guy was. Of course he's probably in jail now, he was definitely a bad boy type.

3. Have you ever seriously vandalized someone else’s property?
No, I don't think I have, but I had my car keyed once - I deserved it. I totally stole this lady's parking space.

4. Have you ever hit someone of the opposite sex?
Yes, my sons and I whomp on each other pretty frequently, but it's all in fun. I did get very angry and throw something at my husband once, but fortunately it was light plastic and didn't hurt him.

5. Have you ever sung in front of a large number of people?
Frequently. I've been in various choirs since elementary school. I don't do solos though. I tried it once, in a bar, but I guess it was pretty bad. I get nervous when I sing by myself.

6. What’s the first thing you notice about your preferred sex?
Probably his smile and definitely his hands. And then his chest. I like a nice chest. It's a priority for me.

7. What really turns you off?
Rude people, gross talk (anything having to do with bodily functions), disrespectful behavior, vulgar language

8. What do you order at Starbucks?
I'm cheap, so I don't go to Starbucks unless I'm on an expense account. On the rare occasions I do go, I get a Caramel Mochiatto.

9. What is your biggest mistake?
Staying with bad boyfriends. I had several bad boyfriends I stuck with for way too long and it probably kept me from meeting some really nice guys.

10. Have you ever hurt yourself on purpose?
Nope, not my thing. I try to avoid pain whenever possible.

11. Say something totally random about yourself
I nearly drowned when I was little, so I am terrified of water on my face. I never swim with my face in the water and I can even take a shower without getting a drop of water on my face.

Isn't this just the most adorable puppy? His name was Theo and he was just a six week old ball of fur when we got him. A beautiful and very expensive pure bred Golden Retriever fresh from the local pet shop. We were in heaven and thought we'd picked the perfect dog for us. Little did we know what was in store for us.

Our first clue came on the very first day - when he chewed through the power cord on my computer. Oh well, puppies nibble on things I said, as I was shelling out $70 to replace it.

The next day, he ate the plastic tray out of his puppy crate. Then he chewed my wall hanging off the wall and ate a hole in the mattress in the guest room. So we moved him to the garage. Even though he was in a fenced in kennel, he ate the bra off my husband's truck and 20 feet of extension cord.

We moved him out to the backyard. He ate all the acorns and apples - they aren't supposed to be good for dogs and aren't very edible, but when you've got three huge oak trees, what can you do? There were 10 million of them around the yard and seemed to be his favorite snack. The next week, he chewed through the cable wires on the back of the house.

We did try to work with him. We took him to puppy kindergarten. We got the videos and tried all the leash training. We used all the proper training techniques and the right authoritative voices, no luck. Theo ran like a crazy mutt through the house, wouldn't respond to us, refused to walk on a leash and chewed everything in sight.

The trainer remarked that he was overly "alpha". Not only was he a nightmare around other dogs, he was rough with our son Blake. From the beginning, he seemed to regard him as a littermate and wouldn't ever listen to him. He would run away from him and jump all over him. He was also showing unmistakable signs of being, um, "attracted" to him.


By now, Blake was a somewhat petite 9 year old and Theo was a pretty robust year-old dog. One morning, while I was in the shower, Blake went out into the backyard to play with Theo before school. Theo got his leg in his mouth and started dragging him around the yard. Blake was terrified and yelling for help, but I couldn't hear a thing. Finally, he managed to get a stick and beat the dog off of him. That scared me so bad, that dog was gone in 24 hours.

No, we didn't send him to the pound or palm him off on some other unsuspecting family, we found a breeder who wanted him for breeding purposes. We figured he needed someone much more experienced with handling a large, uncontrollable dog.  Last we heard, he was very happy there and had fathered a couple of litters of very cute puppies.

But we did keep one souvenir to remember him by.




This has been one of the writer's prompts from Mamakat's Losin It. Join in the fun over at her blog.

Meet Bob. If you've noticed, Bob is a goldfish. You may have also noticed that he is currently residing in a flower vase. That's because Bob was an unexpected and somewhat unwelcome guest.


The story of how Bob came to reside in the CrazyHouse is actually pretty funny. Last month, Blake and I went to Cornbelly's. Click Cornbelly's to see some highlights and pictures from last year's visit. It's a combination corn maze and Fall festival with lots of fun games and activities for the kids. It's our favorite Halloween tradition.


So, Blake was doing the Paintball activity, where you shoot these paintballs at targets. The boy behind the counter said that they were offering a special prize just for that night. If you hit a special target, you get a goldfish. Immediately, I said "Blake, don't hit that one, we don't want a fish". I like cats and dogs, but I hate fish. They're so messy and they always die and then the kid is all heartbroken, so you go out and get them another one and it's just an unbreakable cycle.

Well, of course, the Mama's lil' darling takes aim and immediately hits the special target - damn it! So the boy reaches behind the counter and gives him one of those little plastic bags with the goldfish in it. Oh goody!

So, for the rest of the evening, we're carrying this darn fish around and everyone is asking us where we got the fish. At one point, he even had one of the workers "babysitting" the dumb fish so he could go on the rides. So I had several workers come up and ask me if Bob was still doing OK. 

And the whole time I'm looking around and wondering because no one else seems to have a fish....

Finally, by the end of the evening I figured it out. Someone must have given that boy a fish that he didn't want, so he hit on this brilliant idea of giving it away to some random little kid as a prize. Yeah, MY random kid - ugh. 

That is how Bob came to be living in my flower vase on my kitchen counter....

PS: I did have to add that Bob does seem to be a pretty smart goldfish. Like every other pet around here, he has learned to beg for food. I'm serious. It's hilarious. Whenever he sees one of us come near his bowl, he swims to the side of the bowl and goes crazy until one of us drops in a few crumbs of food. At least he's a smart goldfish!

This man is my hero and I figured it was about time I devoted a post to him. He's a little old Santa Claus of a man, but over the last 50 or so years, he has given children so much more than toys. His name is Glenn Doman and he has literally devoted his life to helping parents with their children, both well children and brain injured children. He comes from a little place you've probably never heard of, The Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential in Philadelphia (IAHP.org). The reason why I owe him so much is a long story for another post. But maybe if you read this article he wrote, you'll get an idea of why I admire him so much.

I don't remember if I've ever posted about Kiva or not, but even if I have it's been a while and it's a good thing to keep in mind. If you've been reading my blog for long, you know that I'm a big believer in The Secret and other sources of positive thinking. One of the tenets of that way of thinking is the idea of giving back. Whether it's time, money, old clothes, or whatever, I think it's very important that those of us who are fortunate enough to live a comfortable lifestyle, should give to those who are less fortunate. I guess it's kind of a good Karma thing to do.

Kiva is a great way to do that. Kiva.org is a website where you can make micro-loans to individuals in improverished countries. It's actually very cool. You go out to the website and there is a list of people who are wanting to borrow small amounts of money - usually between about $500-$1000 (you only fund a portion of the loan - $25 is the typical donation amount).

There is a picture of the person, their name and the country they are from and a little bit about what they want the money for - usually to start or improve their business. You can choose the country and the sex of the person you are loaning to. I typically only loan to women and I try to choose women with large families to provide for. I don't really care what country they are from, but I've loaned to women in Africa, Russia, and Asia mostly. They've even added a new category of people in the US you can loan to.

Once you've picked out your recipient(s), you click on the button and fund the loan, either through a checking account, or through Paypal. That's it - easy peasy! Then you sit back and wait. In a month or so, you'll start seeing small payments coming back into your account. These are loans, not gifts and these people are generally excellent about paying their loans back. Kiva has a 98% payback rate and out of the 23 loans I've done with them over the years, I've only had one that wasn't paid back and that was because the local lender who set up the loan was corrupt.

When your loan is fully paid back, usually in six months to a year, you can either choose to take your money back out and go on your merry way, or you can choose to lend it out again to another person and start the whole cycle again. That's what I usually do and it's kind of fun to watch the payments mount up and start looking for your next person to help.

I know that our own country is having some pretty hard times right now and I do have local charities that I like to help out as well, but I always feel that we have so much more than some of these people in very poor countries. Even the poorest families in the US typically have things that third world families wouldn't dream of owning - things like cars, and TV's and video games, while many of these families are just striving for the basics of food, clean water, and an education for their children.

So pop on over there and poke around a bit. Maybe make a loan or two. They even have a special Kiva team for Bloggers. We have a guy on our team who has single-handedly made more than 1,000 loans. And he's just a student. Go figure! If he can do that, what can you do today?

MamaKat's Writer's Workshop came at quite the opportune time this week. One of her prompts was for the most unusual punishment you have ever done with your kids. Well, that is right up my alley. This Mama is all about unusual punishments and I happen to be applying one of them right at this moment.

My 20 year old son has decided to go on a laundry strike. About two weeks ago, I told him in no uncertain terms that he needed to deal with his overflowing laundry basket. Since he just finished school and is supposed to be looking for a job as a Medical Assistant, he pretty much has all day to himself. So, it really could have been done in just a day or so. Yet, the laundry wasn't getting done, day after day.

So, first we moved to DefCon 1: I confiscated his Ipod (one of his most precious possessions and constant companion). I thought that would do it, but after a few more days, he'd only done 1 load of laundry.

OK, buddy boy, time for DefCon 2: His Mac disappeared early on morning before he was up. Usually, he's not this stubborn, but I think he's gotten into thinking that he's an adult now, so he doesn't have to do anything he doesn't really want to. Yeah son, so how's that workin' out for ya?

I was just about to escalate to DefCon 3: The cell phone (Although I wasn't sure how I was going to get my mitts on it - he literally sleeps with the damn thing).

But then I got a fabulous idea - a really Grinchy, awful idea. We have a standard policy about beds. If you don't make your bed, your brother is allowed to sneak into your room and make it for you, then charge you a dollar in labor fees.

I would let his brother do his laundry for the premium price of $5 a load - deducted directly from his checking account, so he can't do a thing about it. Turns out Blake was out shopping for camping stuff tonight, so what the heck, Mom could use a few extra bucks.

So as I'm sitting here writing this post, I'm earning a cool $15 bucks AND getting what I wanted - an empty laundry hamper. Sounds like a win-win to me!

I love my boys to death, but you do not mess with the Mama Dog around here!

A lot of the time I focus on my youngest son Blake a lot, because he's the cute little kid whose doing all sorts of fun things these days. But I don't talk as much about my two grown boys. So when Mama Kat asked us to write about the things we are the most proud of, I thought I would share with you how proud I am of raising these two cute little kids into successful, fully functioning adults.



If you're new to my blog, let me give you a quick who's who. Ryan is my stepson. He will be turning 28 next week, but he was only 2 when his father and I first started dating. Since his Mom had relinquished custody, we had him pretty much full time from age 3 until about age 12 when he chose to move to California to live with his mother. He is now married and has four children - two step children and two of their own. Even though he is my stepson, I usually refer to him as my son because I feel I've earned that right by raising him for the last 25 years!

Matt is my first born son and my husband's middle son. He will be turning 21 in a couple of months and he has just completed his training as a Medical Assistant. Blake is our youngest, but at 11, he's still got a lot of growing up to do. I hope in time, he will grow up just like his two brothers.


















10 Reasons Why I am Proud of My Sons:

1. They are strong in their faith and give back to their community. Both boys attend church regularly without any pestering from me. Matt has gone on three different week-long Mission Trips with our church, partly at his own expense, to help people in poor areas. With four children, Ryan isn't able to do things like that, but I am glad he is raising his own children in the church as well.

2. They both did well in school. They both graduated from High School with pretty decent grades and while they didn't manage the College gig, both of them attended wonderful trade school programs that got them off to a good start.

3. They're both hard workers who never miss a day of work unless they are deathly ill. From what I've seen, that's pretty rare among kids this age. Ryan has worked for the state of California for 4+ years and Matt just finished his clinical internship and is working at a movie theater while he looks for a position as a medical assistant.

4. Both of them are very faithful husbands and boyfriends. No playas here! Ryan has been married for 5+ years to his lovely wife Tammy and Matt is on his third fairly serious girlfriend. The last one he was with for two and a half years, until she went to college out of state.

5. These are both very good boys. No tattoos or piercings (yet!), they don't smoke or do drugs (that I know of) and I don't believe either one of them has ever been drunk. They will have a beer now and then, but it's not a regular habit like it is with a lot of guys their age. Neither has ever been in serious trouble with the law, although they both had a brush with shoplifting in their early years - I think most kids pull that one at some point, but they learned their lesson.

6. Both of them are surprisingly good with money. I don't think Ryan has ever come to us to ask for money, even though I know things can be pretty tough for a family of six with one income. His wife only has partial sight, so her work options are limited, especially with two little ones still at home all day. But they manage quite well, and so does Matt, mainly because I ride him pretty hard on this one. He still lives at home while he in school, but he pays his own bills and is such a smart shopper that I let him do the family grocery shopping most of the time.

7. Great personality. We constantly get comments from people about how nice our boys are. A lot of teenagers are surly and grouchy and you can barely get a grunt out of them most days. Not our boys. They were raised to greet people with a smile and a handshake or a hug. They can maintain a conversation with just about anyone in any situation, which has helped them a lot in the job field, since they both are in jobs that have a lot of public contact.

8. Talent. Matt is quite a talented artist and musician. He has quite a collection of guitars and used to play bass in the youth band at our church. Ryan is more sports minded and has been playing baseball for most of his life. Now he coaches his son's Little League Team. He's also quite a pro with computers, so I'm looking forward to his next visit so he can set up my network!

9. Good-natured. I have to say, I am very lucky that all of my boys have the same basic personality type. They are all good-natured, easy-going, slow to anger, and talkative to a fault! I can always count on them for a hug even during the difficult teen years and usually Matt is quicker to compliment me on a nice outfit than my husband is. You know, I wasn't always the best stepmother, but I never once remember Ryan ever saying that I wasn't his mother or that he hated me or didn't have to do what I said. They always did their best to obey us and were pretty darn good kids 90% of the time.

10. They are good with kids. Ryan is an exceptional father to both his step children and his natural children and makes no difference between them. He is fair and consistent with them, and is actively involved in their upbringing. Matt is a little nervous around tiny  babies, but he's great with the little kids at church and he's played a big role in helping us raise Blake. He's watched him after school nearly every day since he started High School and most of the time, he's pretty good with him. I think he'll make a great father - just not any time soon!

So, that's our boys. They have their faults, just like the rest of us, but I think they can be very proud of themselves and what they've accomplished so far in their lives. I look forward to what else they will accomplish over the next twenty-something years.




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By TwitterButtons.com

I am a girl who is all about the quotes. I have dozens of favorite quotes, mostly from books I've enjoyed. So when I ran across Quotable Sundays over at A Daily Dose of Toni, I knew I had to play.

Here are some of the quotes I live by:

"You can have everything in life you want, if you'll just help enough other people get what they want." Zig Ziglar

"Be yourself - everyone else is taken"  Unknown

"I am my mother's child and that is better than being the child of anyone else in the world" Maya Angelou

"God can dream a bigger dream for you than you could ever imagine" Oprah

"We immediately become more effective when we decide to change ourselves rather than asking things to change for us"  Stephen Covey

"Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do"  Dale Carnegie - (Adrian's take on this. Don't just whine, get busy and fix it! I may whine and complain with the best of them, but then I start looking for solutions.)

"The human brain is unique in that it is the only container of which it can be said that the more you put into it, the more it will hold"  Glenn Doman

"You are what you think about" Earl Nightingale

"Action is the foundational key to all success" Tony Robbins

"Never try to teach a pig to sing, it wastes your time and annoys the pig"  Unknown

"You receive what you thank about" The Secret

"For every moment you are angry, you lose 60 seconds of happiness"  Unknown

"People are where they are because that is exactly where they really want to be - whether they will admit that or not"  Earl Nightingale

"Actions that are recognized and rewarded will be repeated"  Unknown

I think this one is my most favorite. I think it really sums up how I live my life. I'm never that girl who goes along with the crowd. Instead, I always end up going off in my own direction.

"Be a voice - not an echo"

I saw this on a shirt someone was wearing at Disneyland and I've never seen it since, but it has really stuck with me.  I think it's my motto for life.  




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