When I started blogging early this year, I was given a select option of templates to use on my blog. Alot of you have other templates that are not offered thru HSB. How did you go about finding a new template? I would really like to change my look, but probably can't till I get back from vacation. sometime next month. But I would really like if you could tell me what or where or how you got such CUTE templates.

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A couple of weeks ago I got back the results of my latest cholesterol test. I could not believe it, it was 160. Back in the fall I had it tested and it was 225. My doctor said she would give me 6 months to get it down below 220 or put me on meds. Of they gave me all the wonderful advice on how to do it, some of which we were already doing. We eat pretty much wholewheat everything, by request of my grown children, we were using olive oil, oatmeal.... Well I went home and didn't change anything, I'm very lazy. But what I did do about 8 weeks (May 1st)  before my second test was start drinking this juice for my ankle. It's suppose to be good for joint function. My dh has been taking it for a few months for his wrist (corpal tunnel symptoms), with great success. He has no pain as long as he drinks it everyday. So I'm pretty sure that it was this juice that brought my cholesterol down, it is the only thing I did different.. Dr. will be checking it again in 6 months to see how it is then.

By the way, it has been helping with my ankle, haven't had a problem with it since and I had been having problems with it for years. I think I need to drink a little more each day to see if it will help with my neck and shoulder.

Here is the site for the juice: www.fruitfast.com

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What I'm reading is "Anne of Green Gables". I'm sure most have read this book, but I never did. A few years ago I saw the movie and got it from the library several times. About that time on PBS they were showing the series "Tales from Avonlea". This has some of the same characters and I beleive Anne has grown up and moved on.

Well anyways, I'm really enjoying it, I wish I had my dd-18 read it.  I went to www.paperbackswap.com to get the rest of the series. Hopefully they will come before I leave a vacation.

What are you reading?

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The satilite man just left. And he took our dish with him. About two months ago they came out and tested to see if we could get a reception, they tried a few years ago and couldn't. I finally gave in to their constant calls, I always explain to them we have too many trees, but no one listens to me. When they came out the end of winter( no leaves yet), we got reception. Ever since Mothers Day weekend we started haveing black outs, just for moments at a time. Well it was getting worse and worse, the last 3 days, no tv. Couldn't even watch the local news to see how the storm coming in would effect us. Anyways, we no longer have dish tv, I told them this would not work out.

The upside, I might actually get my dishes washed now......

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Someone sent me this through an e-mail, so no this has not happened at our house. We don't even have a cat.......but we do have a dog. Hmmm.

A great Mother's Day story!
 
So, we had this great 10 year old cat named Jack who just recently died.  Jack was a great cat and the kids would carry him around and sit on him and nothing ever bothered him.  He used to hang out and nap all day long on this mat in our bathroom.
 
Well, we have 3 kids and at the time of this story they were 4 years old, 3 years old and 1 year old.  The middle one is Eli.  Eli really loves chapstick.  LOVES IT.  He kept asking to use my chapstick and then losing it.  So finally one day I showed him where in the bathroom I keep my chapstick and how he could use it whenever he wanted to but he needed to put it right back in the drawer when he was done.
 
Last year on Mother's Day, we were having the typical rush around and try to get ready for Church with everyone crying and carrying on.  My two boys are fighting over the toy in the cereal box.  I am trying to nurse my little one at the same time I am putting on my make-up.  Everything is a mess and everyone has long forgotten that this is a wonderful day to honor me and the amazing job that is motherhood.
 
We finally have the older one and the baby loaded in the car and I am looking for Eli.  I have searched everywhere and I finally round the corner to go into the bathroom.  And there was Eli.  He was
applying my chapstick very carefully to Jack's . . . rear end.  Eli looked right into my eyes and said "chapped."  Now if you have a cat, you know that he is right--their little butts do look pretty chapped.
And, frankly, Jack didn't seem to mind.
 
And the only question to really ask at that point was whether  it was  the FIRST time Eli had done that to the cat's behind or the hundredth.
 
And THAT is my favorite Mother's Day moment ever because it reminds us that no matter how hard we try to civilize these glorious little creatures, there will always be that day when you realize they've been using your chapstick on the cat's butt. 
 

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Hi Everyone,

I know no one missed me, but I have been missing for about a week and a half. We had a storm that blew out our modem. Husband didn't think this was what it was, we had a protector on it. But appearently that didn't work. So after calling our provider, and the computer company, we ended up getting a new modem. So, I'm Back.......

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This site gives you all kind of tips on simplicity each week, check it out.

Weekly Simplicity Tips

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An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck.
One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.

At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments.

But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be b bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream.
"I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."

The old woman smiled, "Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?"

"That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them."

"For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table.

Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.

You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

SO, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flower s on your side of the path!

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Appearently some have been having problems getting to my site by clicking on their link or friends list. I didn't know about this, it's been going on for a few weeks. I'm glad that it's something to do with the tech dept., I was beginning to think no one liked me anymore. I wrote to the blog people for help and this is what they wrote back. Hopefully it will be cleared up soon.

This is a known problem that will be worked on by our web tech soon. 
It's
an issue that arose when we updated our software and people could then
have
different usernames and blog names.  Before they had to match, so it
wasn't
a problem - but now it is.  I have the same thing going on with my tech
blog
and I know it's very irritating!  So I'll definitely stay on top of
this one
until it is fixed.  Until then, they need to click to your profile
page,
then click on your blog link from there to get to your actual blog
page.

Jodi
Tech Support
www.homeschoolblogger.com/HSBTechHelp

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I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentines Day. We're not planning anything major. Thought I would make a red and pink dinner. Spaghetti, heart shaped rolls, pink jello salad, some red juice. Maybe put a red table clothe out with my white dishes. This will mean I will have to get the table cleaned. I do have a little something for the girls, hubby and I went to a movie and dinner last saturday.

What are you doing?

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School again went fine, we finished letter R. She is picking up on her reading and gets so excited when she does well. She is quite the drama queen, but fun to watch. We have been working on her memory verse. This I had her write a word, read it, then write the next, read it , and so forth. She thought this was really cool. For home ec, we made Whole Wheat Banana Muffins. Yum, Yum. She ran and got her dress up apron. Need to get our aprons made.

Yesterday we went to two H.S. Meetings. At #1, we're planning our play for this year, "Mice and Mozart." This was our groups first play 7 years ago when dd#1 was 12, she was the Emporers daughter. Now I'm debating about letting dd#2 be in it. She would be one of the mice. I also asked everyone to share there teaching style. It was nice to see who was using what, and to know who we could ask questions to. I also realized that I may need to pick it up a notch.

I'm suppose to be starting my exercise program this week, but I have been plagued with migrains all week, so, not done. I was just planning on starting with walking for 15 minutes or Walk away the pounds video which takes about 12 or 20 minutes. I'm hoping to be able to do that today. I am still  drinking my water. We have well water and I love to drink it. And I am keeping to one plate of food, just need to work on my snacking.

I have decided to start reading a Proverb chapter everyday. I have seen on others blogs, this being part of there daily reading, it doesn't take long, but there is alot of info in there. I need to start reading the whole Bible. It just seems so overwelhming when I say that. Our concregation has a schedule that they announce everyweek as to where you should be. It's just Feb., I'm already 2 or 3 books behind. But I need to just start reading and go at my own pace.

Last night was the third night this week my husband had to stay out of town unexpectedly. In a way, it's been kind of a nice vacation. I don't have to cook anything major, just more leftovers or cereal. The older kids have been working or gone at night, so I don't have to cook anything for them. I did manage to get my office floor 3/4  of the way clean while he was gone. Couldn't walk in there before.

Hope you guys have a great weekend....

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I just thought it would be fun to have a different look. This is more me than the flower. But now I have lost my logos, icons, whatever they are called on my sidebar. I had my Secret Sister, Toss the Loss, Weight ticker, they're gone. I will never do this again, I promise, just help me get them back....

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I have just spent another hour on the phone trying to get our internet service started again. We have two phone lines, one was our son's with internet access, and we had ours with internet access. My son after several months decided he didn't use it enough and wanted to cancel. We liked the idea of being able to get online and use our phone at the same time, so we kept both lines. This is necessary when your husband is on call 24 hours a day. I called the phone company to cancel the internet on our main line. SHE CANCELLED BOTH. So then I had to call on friday to get this fixed, at least two hour of being on hold and trying to get it fixed. We had service over the weekend, but this morning I tried to get on, no internet. So another 1 1/2 of waisted time on the phone.

The upside: They gave me a whole month of free internet, and I didn't ask for it.

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I know gas prices have been rather nice lately, but my daughter sent this to me and it just seems funny. Especially the water....

Sick of gas prices lately? Ponder these:
Diet Snapple, 16 oz for $1.29 = $10.32 per gallon.

Lipton Ice Tea, 16 oz for $1.19 = $9.52 per gallon.

Gatorade, 20 oz for $1.59 = $10.17 per gallon.

Pint of milk, 16 oz for $1.59 = $12.72 per gallon.

Vick's NyQuil, 6 oz for $8.35 = $178.13 per gallon.

Pepto Bismol, 4 oz for $3.85 = $123.20 per gallon.

White Out, 7 oz for $1.39 = $25.42 per gallon.

Scope, 1.5 oz for $0.99 = $84.48 per gallon.

And this is the real kicker:

Evian water, 9 oz for $1.49 = $21.19 per gallon

So next time you're at the pump, be glad your car doesn't run on Nyquil
or
Scope -- or spring water for that matter

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O.K., so most people probably didn't even know I was gone. Well I wasn't physically, just couldn't get to my computer. First, I had ladies coming over Tuesday night, so of course that means total overhall of house. You just don't know how bad your house is until your having company. So all day Monday and Tuesday, with everything else, I had to clean. And of course you have to make the desert, because thats why everyone comes. I made Pina Colada Cake, yummm. I post the recipe for this.

And then in the midst of this, husband is out of town, and we have to get the basement cleared out, so that when he gets home Wednesday night, we can move our old furniture down to make room for the new furniture coming Thursday, thats today. Mind you, this stuff has been here since we moved in 6 years ago. We got half of it out and stacked the rest in a corner. A friend gave us a piece of used carpet to put on the concrete, and dd#1 put her t.v. and dvd in there. Now they have another area to hang out. The new furnitures color is called NO BRAINER. It's kind of a cranberry.

I called the phone comapany to change our plan, wanted to make it cheaper. Well they ended up cancelling our internet. But I didn't know until my daughter was having trouble connecting. I called the technician, of course I'm on hold for an hour and half, then they told me it was cancelled. We finally got it figured out, and now I'm back on. Yeah. Like you all wanted to hear all this.

Now I have to go see if there are any Toss the Loss assignments, and Blogger Friend School assignments.

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