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Hi :)
Mood:  rushed
Now Playing: The Early Show on Tv and Nathan playing with his choo choo chooo set as he calls it
Well, last weekend was a busy one. My husband, Charles, was involved in a nasty car accident. He is doing fine. What happened was a woman ran a red light traveling at about 40 mph or more. My husband was turning left into the intersection and she came through the light and his car hit hers and her car went flying through the air and rolled over once. She was ok, but she had a baby in the car too and they took the baby to Children's Hospital. I've prayed over and over that the baby is ok. I am glad that she was ok too. I'm not mad at that woman, I feel for her and her family. I've run red lights a few times, and now it has made me more aware of them and cautious. It also helped us to slow down a bit and take in our lives and to realize that life can be short!

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Moving on, we are moving closer and closer to Kristen's surgery (waiting to hear from her surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic) and we are becoming more and more nervous. Kristen and Amanda both have a disease called FAP. I won't go into details but you can read more about it online and at clevelandclinic.com. She is going to need one more surgery soon to remove her ilelostomy, we are praying that she is able to have it removed because in some cases it cannot be done. In her case, she had complications after her first surgery (done last year) so we are not 100 percent sure that she will be able to have this done. All we can do is pray :) I decided to take her to Cleveland Clinic this time instead of Children's hospital because I've read a lot on this and joined a support group online and have gotten so many responses back from people who have also been through the same thing. The doctors at the clinic are the best in the world for this condition. Please say a prayer for her :)

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I am thinking about getting Kristen and Amanda in to some type of counceling. They hardly get along. Amanda with her adhd, is always up to something, picking on her siblings all the time, or just being in her hyper state of mind. She is so creative, outgoing and active, whereas Kristen is very laid back, quiet and even shy. My girls are like night and day! They scream, yell, curse at each other, I just want them to get along! Having two teenage girls living in the same bedroom is rough!! I just want more peace in our home.

Nathan keeps himself entertained pretty easily. He is into his wooden choo chooo choooooo set as he calls it. He loves to play and build with it. He could also play with his hot wheels all day long! Logan on the other hand, could sit and watch cartoons all day long if we let him! He is also into video games, luckily we don't have but two of them, so he finds other things to do. He is now inrolled in the Boy Scouts, and he is looking forward to it, and so is my husband and myself. My husband earned his Eagle badge years ago, I'm glad he has experience with it. My MIL is a cub commissioner in the scouts, and I often turn to her for many questions. She is a very knowledgeable person.

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Somedays I dream of having our own house on our own land of about 100 acres in the country with woods and tall trees, a nice creek running through it for the boys to explore, wildlife all around us. Someday..

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Amanda's newest project is building her own rabbit cage for a pet rabbit she is going to get and to become a member of 4H. Kristen and her were members a year ago, but it was for astronomy and they really didn't do anything and their leader quit. I'm looking forward to her getting a rabbit not just to have as a pet, but for her to have something to be proud of and take care of. She has her own cat, but she cats are very independent, she needs something that requires her attention, something to help keep her busy lol (she's been enjoying the new trampoline we got for them too, it helps her channel out some of her energy!).
I'm a bird person, I would have a pet hawk if I could or a African Grey. We have a cockatiel, she is mostly Kristen's baby, she takes to Kristen so well. She was flying around in the house last night while Kristen was cleaning her cage out and she actually landed on top of Charlie's head lol, that was a rare sight :) I have a couple of bird feeders in our backyard and I just love to see what kinds of birds come and feed every day. I'd put a cam out there if I had one!

Well, that's enough on our life lately, I will be back soon to write some more updates!
Take care my friends and please post some comments if you'd like to :)

Tish

Two year olds and self made tatoos
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: Nathan and his body art!
I have a question...

Why do two year olds have to make their own body art with markers and pens? Nathan loves to get ahold of our markers and color all over his legs, arms, and belly and even his face LOL. His best buddy Mattie (who is 2 weeks younger than he is) also likes to do the same. She likes to draw circles on their walls at home too hahhaha. The joys of two year olds! I guess it's their way of showing their creative side!

Happy Valentine's Day!

CABIN FEVER
Mood:  lucky
Now Playing: THE CABIN FEVER GANG
WHEW!!

I think that we all have cabin fever or something. We are stuck indoors again on this Saturday afternoon into the evening. We did not get a ton of snow like the weather man predicted, thank goodness! They are calling for blizzard weather in New York, so I am feeling lucky! We did get some ice again but not too much.

I talked Kristen into making some homemade choc. chip cookies, YUMMMM, and I made some homemade vegetable soup. Sunday I am making a turkey. The girls are thinking about going to the movies tonight with some friends. I would like to go to the Newport Aquarium on Sunday, but we will see. Logan has taken an interest in sharks. We went to the library earlier in the week and I let him check out a book and tape about different types of sharks. It was pretty interesting. Then on sattelite tv today, there was a show all about sharks. He wasn't too interested in it though lol.

Our yahoo group for homeschoolingpenpals is growing each day! We will begin our first swap this weekend. Logan has received his first pen pal letter in the mail from a boy his age named Riley. He loves to get mail of his own.

I am thankful that we are all here together, safe, warm, and fed. The boys (including daddy) are all in our bedroom playing a tickling/wrestling game. They love spending time with daddy! Nathan keeps yelling DADDDDDDDDD whenever he leaves the room lol. He is a very persistant little guy!

I am happy to report that my blood pressure is down now and hopefully it will stay down. It really scared me when it was up so high. I haven't done any diet plan yet though.

Have to go bye bye !!

My Doctor's Appointment
Mood:  crushed out
I finally went to see my doctor this week. I was getting worse. I was feeling awful with a headache, dizziness, chills, and I even vomited. My blood pressure at one point was 188/122! My doctor put me on some new meds and also an antibiotic for a sinus infection, but he said I could have mono because I have been so tired lately. I get so worn out just when I do dishes!
The good news is that I am feeling better today with a little bit more energy, but I'm not going to push myself. I am praying that my meds will kick in soon and get this b.p. under control, because it's no fun and I am scared to death that I could have a stroke.
They say that high bp. is often the "silent killer" because there are no symptoms that people get when they do have it. I have to make some diet changes asap. I am going to when I go to the grocery next week. We are going to buy tons of veggies, turkey, chicken, fruits, rice and NO POP! I don't make that much fattening foods or buy a ton of snacks because we don't have the money for them, but I do eat until I feel full, which I need to control also. I've decided the kids and I are also going to start walking around the neighborhood or walking to the nearest park so we can get some excercise! I would love to join our local YMCA but it's too expensive for us right now.

Update....I've applied for us for a Habitat For Humanity Home, wish us luck! We meet some of the qualifications, but our credit stinks due to us leaving the mobile home we bought new when we were STUPID lol. Oh well, you live and learn. I don't want to give up hope that someday we could own our own home!!!

I've got to get going over to my sister in laws house to sort through the ton of stuff we've accumulated over the months from dumpster diving. We are going to try to sell items at auctions, or flea mearkets. Wish me luck again lol

Take care!!

My creepy story!
Mood:  quizzical
Ok, here is my creepy story that happened to us this weekend.

A few weeks ago, my sister in law and I, and my oldest niece were all out late on a back road, coming back from our routine dumpster diving, yes we go dumpster diving! I will post more on that later. Well, we were going about 20 mph and my SIL and I saw two dogs near a ditch, not hurt, but one dog was white in color and the other was all black, so it was hard to see it, except............. we saw it's teeth sticking out, like you know how dogs show their teeth when they are mad, or trying to protect something or on guard? I've never seen a dog with such huge, I mean HUGE teeth and it freaked us out so much that I got chills and I wouldn't go back to look. Well, that's not the whole story.................. this past Saturday night, we were out on our routine dumpster diving trip again, and took this same road ( I almost didn't take this route because I forgot)...but this time it was my SIL, my youngest daughter, and one of my SILaw's nephew's who is about 17. We were driving along the road going slow and my daughter first saw a white dog, then she said she saw a black dog!! I didn't want to do it but they begged me to turn around and go back, so I did. We were going slow and saw the same dogs again (but in a different place on the road) and my SIL and I saw the black dog's teeth showing AGAIN!!!!! I got chills and almost started crying because I was so shaken and scared to death! Wait...that's not all...we went back again and there were no dogs in sight, and my SIL was shining her flashlight out her window when suddenly......she screamed in fright, she saw a man dressed in cammoflauge standing in the treeline staring right at her, approx. where the dogs were, mind you, at 1:30 in the morning!!! I didn't see him, luckily or I could have gone off the road!!! I kept on going too!! I wouldn't go back.

The next day I told my husband to go down this road on his way home from hunting at his parent's farm. He saw nothing. My SIL and I have come to a few conclusions....one is that this man could have been on duty as a look out person for some drug dealers in the woods making up drugs, another is one that my husband suggested he could have been a hunter who was poaching, I said a deamon (meaning that black dog with the huge teeth showing), or just someone's dogs on the loose. I want to go back, but I am a big chicken!!!!!!!!!!! What would you do? I might go back one night with my husband to see what he says.

Pretty creepy huh????


Send me some opinions on what your thoughts might be on this incident! I like other people's opinions and thoughts :)

Have a great weekend everyone!!

We have power again!!
Mood:  hungry
We have power now! We had a wonderful Christmas, but challanging. The day before Christmas eve, we got hit with a terrible ice storm that knocked our power out for a couple of days! We decided to go to my mom's house and spend the night there and to the farm to spend a night there too. We had a great time, but the whole time we were gone, I was worried about our cockatiel and big oscar fish surviving the cold weather. Luckily when we got home, they were all fine, except Amanda's pet hermit crab, he died :( There are still so many tree and tree limbs down here in town everywhere. It amazes me to see how many limbs and trees came down on the power lines, houses and even cars. Today, though, the trees finally do not have the ice weighing them down and they are looking "happier" now :)

Yesterday we got to go and visit my grandparents in their nursing home and my dad came up from Tennessee to visit also. We exchanged gifts and had a nice visit with them all.

My new year's resolution is to loose weight and to get healthier. My blood pressure was 175/112 yesterday and it had me worried. I have been sleepy, irritated, dizzy, lots of headaches lately, and I have to do something. I have not been taking my meds because I have not been back to my dr. in a long time. I need to do something fast. I am only 33 yrs old and I do not want to have a stroke early in life!

For New Years eve, we are going to my good friend Lori and Dan's house to celebrate. We used to go there every New Years and spend the night there. We would play games, eat eat eat, husbands would play guitar, kids would play video games and Lori and I would chat all night long lol. I'm happy that we can go this year because it's been a long time! They are now living in their new habitat for humanity home and it's really nice. We are thinking about applying for one. I really love this little old house that we are renting now, but in the area they live in there is much more for homeschoolers to do and more support groups, and it would also be closer for my husband to go to work and to his parent's family farm.

I must go for now to clean and then nap.

Thanks for reading, hope you all had a nice Christmas and be safe for the New Years!!

Ohdela schooling
Mood:  quizzical
Our oldest daughter, Kristen, is enrolled in Ohdela for her schooling. We decided to take this approach because I thought it would be easier on us for someone else to keep track of her hours and to make sure she gets a good high school education. Well, I am wondering now. It's nice that they provide their students with a nice laptop, printer/fax/copier, school supplies, and books, but...... we have found out that they require the students to do 25 hours a week, plus online work, offline work, and interactive online classes. It has become a hassle for us because we are not people who like schedules! Kristen started out doing great, but when we got into the details of the program, it got more stricter. She feels like it is too hard for her and too much of a schedule to follow. We might be exiting Ohdela soon.

We've adjusted to our move quite well, I just have a ton of laundry to catch up on, and we are waiting to get a gas stove from some kind person off of freecycle.com.

Have to go, have a terrible headache! Take care!

WE MOVED!! YIPPIE!!
Mood:  bright
We moved!! I'm soooooo happy. We found us a nice 3 bedroom house only 2 min from where we used to live, but closer into town. I am really glad we moved. Our townhouse was falling apart. Whoever the owners had hired to build it got screwed! There were many things going wrong with it, such as nails coming through the ceiling upstairs, cracks in the wall, the banister was cracked upstairs and more! Plus the neighborhood kids were always putting garbage in the yard, especially in front of our porch! The parents around there didn't care nor did they watch their kids. Now we have a nice quiet (so far) little neighborhood with our own nice backyard!!!!!!!!! I wish we had a game room or a bigger basement. The basement is only the size of a cellar but creapy hahahah. It's an older house but it's cute. There was no stove or fridge here but I got on Freecycle.com and found us a fridge and we are getting a stove from a freecycler tonight in our area, is that luck or what??? I just love freecycle. Our fridge is prob a 1970 something GE but it looks good and runs good and that's all that matters. The lady said that the stove she has is very nice. I wanted an electric stove but we do not have a 220 outlet for it, only for the dryer, so we are going with a gas stove.

The kids seem to enjoy it here, even though there are still boxes and bags and clutter laying around because we are not done unpacking yet. It's driving Amanda nuts though, but she is doing better. She hates clutter, messes and being dis-organized. She feels overwhelmed, poor kid! Kristen has some boy calling here for her, so she is in her own little world. Nathan and Logan are enjoying it, but they still do not go into their bedroom that much to play yet. I need to paint the walls and make it more playful in there for them. We will get there though. Charles really likes the layout of the entire house. He said if he ever got a house, this is what it would be like. Who knows, maybe we will buy it someday. I just wish it was closer to Nana Debie.

I am halfway done with our Christmas shopping, except for our kids. Are you done yet?? I've been getting alot of Christmas cards in the mail, thanks to my swappers and my pen pals. I love writing to pen pals (a new hobby that I started up again) and also swapping. I entered our kids into a few swaps, they are fun and the kids just love getting and sending mail.

I must be going now to clean clean clean and unpack argggggggghhhhhhhhh, I dread it lol.

Take care!

We might be moving soon :)
Mood:  caffeinated
Well, cross your fingers! We might be moving in a few days!! I found us a nice small 3 bedroom for rent and it is almost 200. a month less! The landlord seems very nice and she called our present landlord. Immediately after talking to her, he called us. He has offered to lower our rent "a little" but I am not going to even negotiate with him, we are ready to move. Long story, but one day he came into the house (had to fix a major plumbing problem-all 3 townhouses toilets overflowed so bad it ruined the carpeting) he was talking to Kristen about how to never put pads down the toilet! The day that he came back, I stood up to him and informed him that my daughter has not been on her period since her surgery, I breastfeed and do not have periods (at that time) and my other daughter has not started yet!!! He shut up right away, but it was not right to accuse us of a plumbing problem that was not our fault!! Ever since that incident, I do not trust this man.

Oh well, I could go on and on, but wish us luck. :) Will keep you all updated!!

Off to bed soon after our boys quit running around in a circle in the living room hahhahaha.