Sorry I haven't updated in a while.  I have been really busy.  I went to post twice on here and clicked on submit and BAM!  My post was gone.  By then, these were really long posts, I was spittin' mad and just quit for the day.

Wednesday we leave for Tennessee.  I really think it may be my favorite place on earth.  It's so lovely there.  Except the snakes.  I hate snakes.  I don't like any animals without legs but snakes freak me out more than worms, fish, dolphins, or sharks.  Everytime I go to Tennessee I see a snake.  BLAH.  I get to see my Granny and Jewell gets to meet her Great Granny.  She is so cool.  She is 84 and she still works two days a week cooking at a truck stop.  She is having out patient eye surgery so we will be with her.  I am a little nearvous about taking a three year old for a nine hour car trip so I am just crossing my fingers.  We will be in Tennessee on Sunday which means we will get to go to a tent revival at my Granny's Baptist church.  This does not mean, if you have never been, that we will be rolling in the asiles, drinking snake venom, speaking in tongues, or healing people.  Non-church goers can be so cute.  The lady across the hall in another condo actually asked me that.  I think I might have laughed out loud.  I feel bad..........she just wanted to know......but I thought she was kidding at first. 

Husband did not get the job in Battle Creek.  He could have however and that was what he said counted.  He came away with a bit of the confidence he had lost when we closed our business so that was really good. 

I have also planted my first ever "garden"!!!!!  This is wonderful.  I have actually killed a catus before so its just a HUGE step.  My "garden"  consists of a few pots of tomoto seeds a few pots of some kind of purple flower the guy at walmart said would grow also no matter what I did.    I have some picture of it I will post soon.

Also Jewell passed her TOT 2 Ice Skating class.  She can now make a snow pile and skate around in a circle.  I am so proud.  She was so happy.  She gets a patch.  The thing probably cost .30 but to her its like gold. 

Alright now I am about to try to post..............

This is my first sewing project that I have completed.  I made it almost completely myself with assistance from my mother in law in cutting the pattern and my mother in reading the directions that came with the pattern.  I now know what gathers, facings, and triple stitch are.  Now this is not any real big deal to someone who has sewn before.  This part of my educated was never accomplished.  My mom had to work full time and the Catholic school I went to didn't have Home Economics classed.  This pattern was actually purchased because it said it was a Simple Sew.  It said on the package that it should take three hours from start to finish.  It took me almost a month to get it together because I had to wait for help from people.  It also took about five hours to sew because hey this is my first time.  I am really proud.  It has been washed........it stayed together........worn twice..........it stayed together........and put on a taken off by a three year old........it stayed together.  I judge this project a complete success. 

***Also Note!  I have accomplished my first sewing project.  Learning how to sew at 26 is a grand accomplishment and I will no doubt go on and on about it in a later post!  This one is long enough!***

How was your Easter?  Mine was wonderful.  Mostly.

We started off with dyeing Easter Eggs for the very first time on Friday.  Scott had the day off of work so he helped us.  We didn’t do homemade egg coloring the way some of the brave adventurous people have done and lived to tell about on their blog.  Nope!  I went to the dollar store and bought some kind of kit.  (One day I will write a Grand Shakespearian Sonnet all about the dollar store)  Jewell had so much fun!  We dyed a dozen eggs and she wanted to keep going!  It was nice.  This was the first time we had ever done this in her lifetime so we will be doing it from now on. 

Friday night I was just running though some random journal on this website.  I got down on myself.  Feeling like everyone was a better homeschooler and Christian than I was.  All these people know all about the Lord and have such big families and know all these great songs and it just went on and on and on.  Then I thought to myself… I am new at this.  Twelve years of Catholic school gave me some Bible education.  I just started attending church regularly.  I like our church and our pastor and the people.  I am learning a lot.  I am trying to do my best with Jewell in monitoring what she wears and watches on TV and the influences in her life other things.  So we don’t read the Bible as a family…we’ll get there.  So we don’t do things the same as everyone else.  We do them our way and to the best of our abilities.  My child can pray and has mostly good manners.  (She is three!)  I am a work in progress…so for right now I am doing just fine. 

Saturday I spent all morning sick.  I missed Jewell’s ice skating lesson and slept until 2 p.m.  I haven’t done that since I had mono in the tenth grade.  In the evening I rallied and made it to church for Easter.  Our church rents a space so we have services on Saturday night.  This is both a good and a bad thing.  The space is way too small for how many members we have now but we don’t have enough capital to buy a church of our own.  The message was wonderful and inspiring.  I will write a post about that tomorrow.   At night we read from My First Bible for 2-4 year olds.  Jewell likes this book.  It’s her special thing.  Then we read an Easter lift-a-flaps book.  Those are always a hit too.

This morning we woke up and found Easter Eggs filled with hair ties, barrettes, and balloons.  In her Easter basket she had activity books, a prayer book, colored pencils, her own lipstick (chapstick), and stickers.  It is hard to fill and basket for a kid who doesn't eat candy.  Not that I am complaining I think it is GREAT.  He biggest junk food in gramcrackers.  Then we went to the in-laws for the day.  It was nice.  Jewell ate three servings of ham.  She NEVER eats that well.  I was happy.  It was a nice time with the family. 

~~The Mostly is added because it’s about 30 degrees and snowing outside!  I couldn’t wear my new (well resale but new to me) outfit.  I could have but I would have gotten sick.  REALLY SICK~~

After a very long day which was busy and full of chores and house work I went to my mother's house to do laundry.  Now I know its an inconvience to her and it raises her water bill and I use her laundry soap so to make it up to her every Thursday when she comes home she has a home cooked meal.  My mother has been on her own for so long its nice to have someone pamper her.  So I am making mashed potatoes and cheater cheese burger pie when my daughter, who I love so much and is my little sunshine but she has not stopped talking since the minute her feet hit the floor this morning, decides she wants to help.  This is a total learning moment so I say of course go wash your hands.  I get the eggs, it takes three, and while I am wondering if I should dump the shells into the garbage disposal due to her recent sink problems my daughter comes back.  I give her the wisk and tell her to mix the eggs.  She is happily going along stirring and working when she says, "Mommy......I didn't think we were supposed to eat the shells?"  WHAT!!!  I look down to find I dumped the three eggs down the garbage disposal and put the shells in the bowl.  UGH! 

Dinner Was Late.

I got this as a forward in my email.  I just sort of liked it.  It reminds me to reflect on what I am doing and who will see me when I behave in public.

THE BEST ROAD RAGE!

An honest man was being tailgated by a stressed-out woman on a busy boulevard.Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him.

He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman hit the roof--and the horn--screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection. As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, finger printed, photographed and placed in a holding cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Follow Me to Sunday School' bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk. Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car."

Priceless.

So I decided to name my journal/blog/thingie (I am not sure of what to call it) after jellybeans.  Its silly really. 

Jellybeans have been my favorite junk food since I was about six.  My grandfather drove a big rig and one day he decided I could go for a RIDE with him in his big read truck!  Wow!  I can still remember that day twenty years later.  We went to his office, I have no idea what the name of the company was, and on the owner/managers desk was a huge jar of purple jellybeans.  Let’s face it the purple ones are the best kind.  He let me have a handful while he and my grandpa talked.  Then another handful, then another, then another.....this is a great day when you are six.  I was so happy.  We left and went home with my grandfather suggesting that I don't tell my grandmother that he let me spoil my dinner.  (To me this was okay we were having stuffed cabbage and what six year old wants to eat that!)  When we got back to grandma's house I wasn't feeling to well but we sat down to eat all the same.  I just pushed my food around my plate then, when I got up to clear the dishes, it happened.  The purple jellybeans came back with a vengeance.  It was horrible.  I have no memory of it but my mother has always said that my grandmother only got made at my grandpa a handful of times in her whole life and that was one of them.  I went home, felt better, went to school, and well I forgot about it. 

Recently I pulled out a bible I received from VBS during the summer of 1986 when the jellybean incident occurred.   Out fell a leaflet.  I opened it and was reading through remembering people and things that had left during my childhood when I flipped to the children’s lesson.  It was about a little girl who vomited purple jellybeans after over indulging herself and how that was bad and God tells us not to over indulge.  I ran to my mom's to ask her if that was about me, I have no memory of the service, and she said she still remembers that day!  She had never seen my grandfather so red in the face.  When he died two years later they retold that story at the funeral service which I also don't remember.  It was nice to have that leaflet.  So this is where the jellybeans come from.  Life is a wonderful bowl of jellybeans....some good...some not so good...some sticky...some sweet...but never to much.