Mar. 27, 2007 - Why I Moved

Someone asked me to share why I moved my blog to blogger and I've taken way too long to answer!  I thought I'd share that while I had it on my mind. 

I've really enjoyed HSB.  It was my start in the blogging world.  I met alot of wonderful people here and I think the people who run HSB do a wonderful job.  The reasons I moved here are just personal preference really.  I think the ease of use between blogger and HSB are about the same.  Blogger is quicker as far as uploading things.  My husband was also able to custom design a site for me that I could use with blogger.  I started blogging mainly to keep in touch with family and friends.  I found that many of them had difficulty accessing HSB, especially at night.  I experienced this many times as well.  Having said that, I am very thankful that HSB is here because I think it serves many and will continue to do so.  I still enjoy reading the blogs of many with HSB! 

If you're ever in the neighborhood, stop by and see me at My Thousand Loves!

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Mar. 8, 2007 - Moving......

I've decided to move and I hope you'll come visit me here: http://mythousandloves.blogspot.com/

I'll be moving posts over the next month so hang with me while I do this.  I'm sure it'll be annoying at times but I'll try and get it done quickly!  I look forward to seeing you at my new place!

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Mar. 7, 2007 - Wordless Wednesday.....Granny with Great Granddaughter

This is my grandmother with my youngest daughter.  The picture was taken in 2004 when my daughter was 5 and granny was 81.  My grandmother has grown quite feeble over the past three years but I thank God for everyday He gives us with her.  This is one of my favorite pictures of the two of them together.

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, hop over to 5 Minutes For Mom.

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Mar. 6, 2007 - Blogtalkers #2

Blog Talkers Talk - #10

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Mar. 5, 2007 - Menu Plan Monday March 5-11

Here's what'll be cookin' at our place this week.

Monday:  Burgers, potato wedges, salad

Tuesday:  Southwestern Pizza, Ranch lettuce salad

Wednesday:  Talapia fillets, potatoes, corn on the cob

Thursday:  Hawaiian Chicken Bake, mashed potatoes, rolls (wanted to try this last week but didn't get around to it)

Friday:  Eat out

Saturday:  Not sure yet

Sunday:  Corn Chowder, bread (chowder recipe is from Fix It and Forget It)

My menu is a little boring, I know.  I have tried to make a couple of these things for the past three weeks.  I am determined to do better this week.  My dishwasher door handle broke this week and that took an evening to fix so my menu for that day was bumped.  It's ok though.  I'll use these recipes this week! 

For more menus, visit Laura.

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Mar. 4, 2007 - Weekend Reflection #4

My weekend reflection is a day late but you know what they say....better late than never!  LOL!  The week has been full of activities and posting simply slipped my mind!  Shame on me!  One thing I DID NOT do was head over to Judi's and get the new weekend reflection logo she created.  I WILL get it before the next post!  I WILL!

The first of the week was pretty normal.  We were successful in getting our scheduled school work completed, which is good for us!  I continue to work with dd#2 on endings.  She's having some trouble with adding ing, ed, and when you have to change y to i and add es.  She's doing better but we'll keep working on that this week!  DD#1 is doing fine with her SOS. She's not looking forward to starting her new Saxon math but that's life!  She doesn't have to like it....she just has to obey her parents.  She is having a bit of trouble writing.  She tends to write like she is having a conversation with you.  She reads good literature so I'm kind of stumped at why she writes this way.  It seems to have become really bad this year.  I don't remember her having trouble with this in the past.  She is seventh grade level now and this is something that needs to be corrected right away.  I'm in search of any tools or suggestions of things that might help.  She needs to work on having better flow to her writing, organizing her thoughts on paper, and using better words.  If you were to read some of her stories, they are mostly boring.  The language is boring. If you have had problems with your children in this area, please let me know what helped them overcome this problem. 

Thursday, my dishwasher door handle broke.  Friday was spent running to the appliance store to get a new one.  $27 later, it's now fixed!  Sheesh!  A handle costs $27!  That's crazy, especially considering that I was able to get a discounted rate since my FIL used to work at this store.  He got the best discount you could possibly get!  We checked on the internet first and this handle sells for about $47 everywhere we looked.  I can't complain too much since I got it at least $20 cheaper.  This is something that really should cost about $10.  That's reasonable!  LOL!  Anyway, my FIL was gracious enough to come over and help DH fix it.  Afterwards, we invited him and my MIL to stay for dinner.  I served them soup beans (pintos), cornbread, fried potatoes, and weiners with cheese.  My MIL brought some chow-chow that her sister made and we ate some of it too!  It was great!  This is one of our favorite meals.  I don't know many Southerners who don't like soup beans and corn bread!  After we ate, I served them some vanilla pudding dessert that the girls and I whipped up the night before.  I have the recipe if anyone wants it (I couldn't find it on the internet and I got it out of a magazine).  The girls helped me and we had a blast.  I love when they are in the kitchen with me.  It makes cooking so much more fun and I find that these are times that we really talk alot.  It's great!

Poor broken dishwasher handle......

Jeff and his dad fixing the poor broken dishwasher handle!  LOL!


Caroline offered to wash all the dishes while the dishwasher was "out of commission".

Logan's job when making the dessert was making the pudding part.

Caroline's part was crushing the vanilla wafers.

My job was cutting the strawberries.  While doing so, this is a strawberry we found in the batch.  It's the biggest one I've ever seen!  I put it in one of my hands and took a picture of it with my other hand!  LOL!

The girls were stunned to see our finished "masterpiece".

Saturday was a busy day for me.  I went through alot of my craft supplies and tried to throw out or donate some things that I just don't use.  The house was a disaster!  Every room was filled with plastic storage bins and loads of material, markers, scrapbooking supplies, yarn, unfinished quilting projects, and lots of craft paint!

This is only half the mess in my bedroom right now.  I stored everything in there for now because we were having more company this weekend and I had to get the rest of the house cleaned up fast!  LOL!  To get into bed, you have to wade through the other craft items that are in containers all around the bedroom floor!  That'll be my Tackle-It-Tuesday project! 

Another good week has come and gone.  I hope yours was as productive and fun as mine!  I pray  you were not sick and that you enjoyed your children.  Have a blessed week this week and I look forward to hearing about it this Saturday!

Check out more reflections at Judi's place!

 **Disclaimer**  I totally stole the expression "sheesh" from my good friend Jenny! 

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Mar. 1, 2007 - Rudolph Club Meeting

My good friend Jenny recently starting hosting "Rudolph Club" meetings in her home once a month.  A few friends get together and work on crafts while we catch up.  The idea is to work on crafts that we will give as gifts for Christmas or on Christmas crafts to decorate our homes.  So far, none of us have stuck to that guideline :-o)  What we have done though is caught up on each other, shared homeschooling stories or asked questions, knitted, quilted, mended shorts, scrapbooked, and crocheted a little.  We have eaten pizza rolls like mad, enjoyed a chocolate creme cake, and let our kids enjoy each other for a few hours while we craft.  Each of us are doing something different and I love that.  I love that I can watch my friends work on something that I have not yet learned to do.  It inspires me to want to learn.

Jenny has inspired me to do alot of things.  She was teaching me to quilt at one point, she got me hooked on my Knifty Knitter, and now she's sucking me in to the latest thing she's taught herself, crocheting.  I'm not sure how she does it but she always gets me interested in things that I say I'll never pick up.....just like crocheting!  Jenny is such an easy going person and it's easy for her to convince you that you can do something.  She can just pick up material and see a quilt.  Then she can whip it up in no time.  She can make lesson plans that are so good that you want to ask her to make yours!  I think she's invincible.....really I do!  The other day when we got together for the monthly Rudolph thing, she showed me a book that she had picked up from a used book store on crocheting.  She had already whipped up some dish rags!  I am continually amazed by her craftiness and I hope that it continue to rub off on me!  I met Jenny when our oldest children were in public school together.  This was about 8 years ago when the kids were in kindergarten.  The following year, about two months into first grade (her oldest son and my oldest daughter were also in the same first grade class), we pulled our daughter out of public school and started homeschooling.  After this, I didn't see Jenny quiet as much for a few years.  Jenny eventually started homeschooling her kids and that's when we touched base again.  It's amazing really.  I love this gal! 

Our friend Mary, who refues to blog, was also at the meeting.  This time Mary worked on cutting out felt letters for the Letter of the Week class she is teaching at co-op.  Mary is also a very cool person.  She is a consultant (I think she still is) for Creative Memories and I've seen some of her beautiful scrapbook pages.  Mary is very thoughtful and I think she likes to listen to the crazy stories Jenny and I share!  Maybe she just thinks we're crazy! 

Another friend, Cathy, was at this meeting.  Cathy goes 100 miles an hour.  She's always doing something.  Her kids are in public school right now, although she did homeschool for a little while.  Cathy has the heart of a servant and wants to help everyone.  She's always busy, busy, busy, but Jenny did force her to sit and crochet for a little bit.  Cathy used to crochet but had forgotten how because she can't force herself to sit down and take time to practice anymore. 

This is our little group and we've gotten together twice now.  I think we'll get more motivated to do Christmas stuff as the year goes on.  It's hard to get excited about that kind of stuff right now.  Hopefully more friends will join us and we'll be able to learn even more things from each other!  Here are a few of the things we accomplished at the meeting this month:

I finished dd#1's scarf while I was gabbing.  She loves the scarf and has worn it everyday since I finished it.  I didn't get a picture of it but here's the hat that it matches....

Here's the dish rag that Jenny whipped up while we gabbed.....she gave it to me so it now graces my kitchen!  Woo Hoo!


And Jenny gave these to me while I was there....a real treat!


So much fun!  I can't wait until next month.  See you then girls!

Romans 12:10
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;

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Feb. 28, 2007 - Wordless Wednesday.....The Many Sleeping Positons of Mr. Tumnus

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Feb. 27, 2007 - Five Cats & Many Dollars Later.....

So yesterday I spent the morning taking a cat to the vet.  A wild cat.  Not my cat.  A cat that belongs to no one.  A cat that cost me money.  To understand this post, I'll have to take you back a bit.

Three years ago, we moved to our current house.  We were so excited because this house was double the size of our old house.  This house is two minutes from my in-laws.  It is in a nice subdivision.  It's quiet and pretty. There were nice trees/woods behind the house (they aren't there anymore since Century 21 decided to level it and put in apartments or townhouses or something....they're still working on them).   The neighbors are nice.....except the cranky one across the street who hates animals.  It's only a short drive to two different towns.  It's the perfect location really.  The most important thing is that's it's only 10 minutes from Walmart :-o)  We had lived here about six months when it all started.  It was late spring and the girls were outside playing in the backyard when they spotted a big, black cat.  We could tell he was wild because he scared easily.  He decided he would lay in our yard but was sure to stay a good distance from everyone.  He was thin and we felt sorry for him so we started to feed him......Mistake #1.  A few months later, a pretty wild gray mixed kitty appeared.  She was just as scared as the black male cat and would not allow any of us to come near her.  Eventually, after a year of trying, she allowed us to pet her on the back and began coming to our deck to eat.  Speed forward a year........black male cat still comes around to eat and finally allows us to pet him a bit.  He basically just wants to eat and sleep.  If he wants a pet, he'll let you know.  Female gray kitty has been pregnant but birthed the kittens in the woods.  Eventually we come to the conclusion that they are dead since she starts hanging around back alot and the kittens are never in sight.  Speed forward several months later.  Gray female kitty is pregnant again.  It's strange because the same thing happens as the last time she was pregnant.  She shows up fat and about to pop, eats and leaves, comes back a few days later and viola!  Flat stomach!  No kittens in sight again.  Speed forward several months (stay with me here)......yep, you guessed it!  Pregnant again.  She has the kittens and we are able to see about 4 or 5 kittens that make it to about 5 months old.  They are skinny and we get worried for them.  A couple of them look perfectly healthy but a couple are deformed (strange looking tales, etc.).  Gray kitty is playing with two of her kittens in our yard one day so I do what any good citizen would do.....stalk the kitties and successfully snatch one of them up.  We proceed to keep him until he's about 8 months old and then determine he must go the animal shelter to get adopted.  He does get adopted and all is well in kittyland.  We were never able to get our hands on anymore of the kittens from this litter and eventually the momma shows up with no kitties in tow.  I'm sure they died as well.  Hubby and I get the idea that we'll snatch up momma kitty and take her to get fixed so that we don't have to deal with anymore dead kittens.  A month goes by and we try our best to trap her but no dice.  Then we start to notice that she's looking a little plump.....yep, pregnant again!  Can you believe this cat!  LOL!  By this time, she trusts us a bit but she's wild so she's still scared.  We do get her inside the house and basically hold her hostage until she gives birth.  Five kittens are born in our house.  We keep them for about six months and then start looking for homes.  One of them goes to the home of someone in our church.  Two more are taken to the animal shelter and eventually adopted.  The last two remain in our home even now.  They are bob-tailed cats and we feared they would not get adopted and be put down.  Anyway, we go through an organization called PUFA, who helps us get all the kitties fixed for half the price.  This is a blessing because we had three kitties that needed it!  Keep in mind that these are not our kitties.  They are wild....strays from the woods behind our house.  Speed forward to now.....Black male cat has continued to come here to eat and sleep for the past three years.  Sometimes he shows up with fur missing.....sometimes he's skinny because he hasn't eaten in forever......sometimes he's got a cold and yucky eyes.  Last week he shows up with some hideous looking paw injury.  It looked like he had a massive tumor hanging from his front paw.  So, last Thursday I go buy a pet carrier and I call the vets office.  They are closed until Monday!  Grrrr!  All weekend, I've had to keep the cat locked up in our garage......while he gets blood all over the place.  He can barely walk, he's sneezing, his eyes are runny, he has hair missing, and he just wants to come in and lay on the couch.  Uh, I don't think so!  Finally yesterday morning I was able to get in touch with the vet and took him down there.  Turns out that the huge mass hanging from his front paw is the middle pad of his foot.  Gross!  For some unknown reason, it busted out of his skin and was just laying on the outside....raw, gross, and I'm sure very painful.  The vet has to remove the middle pad and informs me that the opposite "good front paw" is about to do the same thing.  So, he removes the middle pad from that foot as well.  Sheesh!  $70 later, the cat is resting in our garage with two bandaged front paws.  He looks pitiful really.  He got a rabies shot, had surgery on two paws, was neutered, and got a couple of high dose shots of penicillin.  Hopefully he's good to go.  I suppose it could have been worse.  We really thought the vet would want to put the cat down.  He's not our cat but it would have been hard to deal with that.  I guess what makes me most angry is that people have animals that they don't get fixed and those animals go out and populate the area around them, which makes it hard for people like us.  Of course, we could have left the black cat to survive on his own but if he came crawling up to your door in the shape he was in, most of you would have tried to help him.  It's pitiful.  If people are going to have animals, they should realize it's a big responsibility and they need to get with it!  We hope the black kitty will recover quickly and then get back outside.  We've saved the last cat we can afford to save for awhile.  I hope no more decide to show up :-o)

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Feb. 26, 2007 - Menu Plan Monday February 26-March 4

The past few weeks have been a little busy.  It seems that each week, at least a couple of my recipes have been put on the back burner.  I don't expect this week to be any different but I am trying really hard to stick to my plan!  Here's what I've come up with...

Monday: Pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, steamed green beans, and rolls (from last week)

Tuesday: Leftover Santa Fe Soup with ham sandwiches

Wednesday: Hamburger steak with potato wedges and green beans

Thursday: Hawaiian chicken bake (from Organizing Junkie and My So Called Perfect Life) with mashed potatoes and rolls

Friday: Eat out

Saturday: Texican Chili and crusty bread (from last week)

Sunday: Breakfast for supper

I hope I have more success sticking to my plan this week!  My menu this week is a little thrown together since I ran out of time to plan.  I think we'll make it though!  LOL!  I'm sure everyone can tell that we are a family that REALLY love potatoes!  For more menus, get on over to Laura's and check em' out!

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Feb. 24, 2007 - Weekend Reflection #3

Ok, so I know I need to visit Judi and get the new button she made for Weekend Reflection but I haven't taken the time to do that yet!  After the week she's had, I almost feel guilty that mine went so smoothly!

School: Things went pretty well all week.  DH and I have discovered that dd#1 needs some help in the area of writing. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for something really good that will help her become a better writer.  I'm also on a mission to find a Saxon 87 test booklet so that we can start that this coming week.  I checked out our local homeschool bookstore but no dice.  Hopefully I can find it in the next few days.  I may have to break down and order it (and pay full price for it).  DD#2 continues to blaze through all that I give her.  She's having a bit of trouble remembering some language arts things (when to change y to i and add es, when to double consanants...like when you change mop to mopping).  I am confident she'll master it soon though.  I think her biggest problem is that she zooms through things so she can get it done and go play!  I was also able to get her back into ballet class with her old teacher.  She'll start again next week.  We are also trying to find some music classes for both girls. DH plays just about anything you can think of (bagpipes, banjo, guitar, mandolin, some fiddle, some button accordion) and he's made a new rule.  It is mandatory for the girls to be involved in music in some way!  So, we'll see what I find in the way of lessons this week!

Crafting: I have started a scarf on my newest Knifty Knitter.  I bought the rectangular one and I'm doing the scarf on it.  It is to match the hat I made for dd#1.  It's going pretty well although it's not as tight as I'd like it.  I'll have to wait and see how I like it when I finish.  I'm about halfway through it....which is good since I've only found about two or three hours to work on it this week.  I should have had it done but I've been working on it while other things were going on around me and I have been distracted!  LOL!  The girls have each now made a couple of hats and feel pretty comfortable using the looms.  They are eager to learn to make other things and I'll make that a goal for next week.  I bought a new Mary Engelbreit scrapbook set and I cannot wait to use it!  I love ME and there was no way I could walk out of the store without this set!  I'm currently trying to get some of my pictures uploaded to walmart.com so that I can have them printed and start working on scrapbooking my photos from our trip to NYC back in December.  This is an area I have to get better with.  I have tons of supplies to scrapbook but not one single finished album!  I sit down to work on them sometimes and I feel like I'm not creative enough to make a beautiful page so I just put everything away!  Do you know how far behind I am with my photos?!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Around the House:  Hmmmm......what did I do around the house this week?  Oh, I remember!  My mom came in for a visit from West Virginia and brought me the cutest bench.  It was so cute that I decided to put it in my living room and use it as a coffee table.  It's cool because if we ever need extra seating in there, we can pull the stuff off the top of the table, swing it around in front of the window, and viola!  Bench seating!  My mom has a real eye for things like this.  She recently found me a cedar chest for $40 at a Goodwill store!  It's solid as a rock and in great condition!  I can't wait for her to bring it down to me but I have to find a place for it first :-o)  While mom was here, we had a great time.  The girls always enjoy having her stay with us.  She was here for three days and we spent plenty of time browsing through local anitque stores. Other than this, I didn't do much more around the house.  I was able to clean out our extra bedroom finally and now I just have our bedroom to go.  I did have a meltdown one day when I went into the girls' room after they "cleaned it up".  What that means is they picked the floor up and put everything on their bed!  So, we did have a little "cleaning session", which means that I threw out several things!

Mealtime:  I made a new recipe this week that was pretty good.  My goal is to make a meal each week using a new recipe we've never tried.  It wasn't as "wow" as I thought it would be but it was good.  I used all the meals from my Menu Plan Monday post except for two.  I switched one of them and made burgers since we hadn't made those in a long time. As I write this, I have to note that I did just return from getting a few groceries and I know I have the ingredients for at least three meals for this week.  That's good considering that I usually always forget one or two items on my list!  Don't ask me how I forget something that I put on a list.....Oh, I also made a new dessert (Cappuccino Mousse) while my mom was here and I baked her a fresh loaf of bread. 

Correspondence:  I did write out a card for a friend who had surgery this week.  I have to get it in the mail first thing Monday but this is good!  I returned all of the phone calls I got this week except for one that I received a few hours ago.....I'll get to that soon!  I had a brief conversation with a friend who lost her stepdad this week.  She called to request prayer for him because he had gone into cardiac arrest and she and her husband were making the drive to Morristown to be with her mom.  While they were in route, her stepdad passed away.  This made me sad for her because her father also passed away due to cardiac arrest.  And her poor mother....I can't imagine what she must feel.  She has lost two husbands to the same thing.  It has to be difficult for her. 

Another good week here and now it's gone.  I look forward to the next one!  I hope your week was a good one!  Hop on over to Judi's place and check out other weekend reflections!

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Feb. 21, 2007 - Wordless Wednesday....Naughty Boy!!

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Feb. 21, 2007 - Blogtalkers #1

I saw this meme over at Scamp's Place and thought it would be alot of fun.  I think I'll make this a permanent post each week here.

 

What is your most annoying habit?  The thing that drives someone else crazy.....

Question submitted by: Write From Karen

Well, I'm sure there are several things that I do that really annoy people!  LOL!  Since my husband is my best friend and closest to me, I annoy him most.  I think I can say without a doubt that the thing that most annoys him is my tendency to run the vacuum cleaner at midnight!  I don't know why I do this!  It just seems like a good time to do it!  LOL!  The kids are in bed and I'm getting ready to go to bed and 8 out of 10 times, I will run the vacuum.  I think I have some issues :-o)  What can I say....I like clean carpet!  Sometimes I do it thinking that I'll save myself some time in the morning.  Sometimes I do it because we may be expecting company early in the morning.  Sometimes I do it because I'm bored.  Sometimes it's because I don't like for the carpet to looked walked on!  Most of the time though,  it's because we have cats and I don't want any trace of cat hair in the house or on the furniture.  I detest cat hair on furniture!  My husband is usually a good sport about it although he loves to give me a hard time.  I'm sure there are many other things that annoy him and I am thankful that he loves me anyway! 

So what's your annoying habit?  Play along by checking out Blog Talkers!

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Feb. 19, 2007 - Menu Plan Monday--Feb. 19-25

Ok, last week I didn't do very well with sticking to my menu.  A few things came up that required us to grab some food while we were out.  My mom was also visiting from West Virginia so I got sidetracked :-0  I'll be using a few of the same recipes this week that I planned for last week.  Hopefully I'll have more success at sticking to my menu this time around!  LOL!

Monday: Hamburgers and tater tots

Tuesday: Bacon Potato Chowder, salad, bread

Wednesday: Pork tenderloin, steamed green beans, mashed potatoes, yeast rolls

Thursday: Italian Club Sandwiches and chips

Friday: Eat out

Saturday: Green enchiladas, chips and salsa

Sunday: Texican chili (from Fix It and Forget It)

For more menus, check out Laura's place at  Organizing Junkie!

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Feb. 17, 2007 - Weekend Reflection #2

Another week has come and gone and it was relatively productive.  Believe me, I had ALOT to do!  Earlier in the week, I made a list of "goals" that I wanted to complete.  It was a long list and I didn't complete everything on it but I did make a good dent in it :-o) 

School:  DD#1 completed her Saxon Math book!  Woo Hoo!  We have been about six months behind because of my grandfather's passing a few years ago.  It's been hard to get caught up but finally we have!  We can start the next level of Saxon next week and by the end of October we'll be right back on track!  Thank goodness we homeschool year round! 

Crafting:  I purchased some yarn and an extra hook so that both the girls and I could be working on our knifty knitters at the same time.  DD#1 is just finishing up her first hat!  DD#2 finished her second hat a few days ago!  We're hoping to start some matching scarves by next weekend!  We're making Christmas gifts and also crafts for the Reformation Day Celebration at our church in October.  **This was a big accomplishment because I actually had to leave my house to go buy yarn and the hook!  I love being home so it took some effort to get out!  LOL! 

Around the House:  Got my carpets cleaned (I did them myself!).  DH fixed the sprayer on our kitchen sink (it was broken).  DH also got our cable hooked up in the upstairs of our house.  We recently moved our TV and we found that the people who lived here before us had cable in every room of the house!  LOL!  DH had to sort through all of the cables and splitters hanging in our garage so that he could find the cable that actually went to the room that we moved the TV to.  It's kinda funny because we rarely watch TV!  I also bought and replaced the flourescent light in our laundry room (DH broke it when he hit it with the base drone on his bagpipes!  LOL!)  I am halfway through hemming DH's kilt.  He needs it tomorrow and I'm confident that I'll get it finished tonight.  My sweet MIL did most of the hemming today.  I can only take credit for pinning it and pressing it. 

Meals:  We ate out more than usual and I hate that.  But, Valentine's Day was this week and my BIL's birthday also so that's our excuse for those two times.  The third time was just because we wanted our favorite Mexican!  LOL!  This is not a usual practice in our house and we will be eating at home more this week!  My Menu Plan Monday will be strictly adhered to this week!  (I'm actually whipping up some homemade spaghetti sauce for supper right now....I also have a homemade loaf of bread in the works....it's rising now!)

Correspondence:  I didn't do well in this area.  I didn't return the call of a lady who called me because I forgot.  I'll do better next week!  I'll just have to apologize to her 100 times over when I do finally call her!  (I hate to talk on the telephone).  I have talked to my mother everyday this week so that's good!  She lives alone in West VA so it's nice that we've talked so much.  It almost makes me forget that she lives 3 hours away. 

It was a great week!  I am looking forward to next week and all of the things I want to accomplish!  For now, I'll sign off and go enjoy my spaghetti and french bread.  If I can find some heavy whipping cream, I'll even whip up some cappuccino mousse!  Mmmmmmmmm......my tummy is growling!

Visit Judi over at Mommy of Two for more reflections!

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Feb. 16, 2007 - My Funny Valentines

Valentine's Day was a real treat for me!  My 8yo dd made me a special card that she was so excited about!  She pulled out our latest copy of Family Fun Magazine and tried to make this magic message card.  Of course her project was "top secret" so everytime I walked into a room, she promptly made me close my eyes until she could put her things away!  This one is a keeper!  It's one of the most special things she's ever given me!  She's a lefty so that's why the card looks backwards! 

While dd#1 was making special heart shaped pancakes for their breakfast, I was able to slip into their bedrooms and tuck their candy under their pillows.  After breakfast, I sent them to make their beds and they discovered their little treasures :-o)  Along with their candy, I included a special certificate.  For dd#1, the certificate allowed her to sleep in on a morning of her choosing.  For dd#2, it was a chore free day!  Of course they were both thrilled as you can see:

Even my favorite kitty, Mr. Tumnus, got into the Valentine spirit:

I don't have pictures to post of dh's gift to me but he did REAL good!  He gave me the sweetest card and a copy of Pride & Prejudice (the version with Colin Firth)!  Woo Hooo!  Now, I think I have copies of all versions of P&P!  I could watch that movie (any version of it) over and over and cry every time!  LOL!  Here's the way the card dh gave me reads:

A Little Love Story for My Wife

Once Upon A Time, on a day that looked like any other day, someone like no one else came along and made life into something that would never be the same.........That's you.  That's my life.  That's why you'll always be the only one for me.  I Love You.  Happy Valentine's Day.

Awwwwww.......ain't he sweet!  Now, if I can only figure out a way to get him to sit down for 5 hours and watch P&P with me!!!!  LOL!

**I finally took a minute to snap a quick photo of the card and (my favorite) gift dh gave me for Valentine's Day.**  My mom's coming in from West VA this weekend so I'm thinking........if dh won't watch P&P with me, I'll recruit my mom!  Woo Hoo!

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Feb. 14, 2007 - Wordless Wednesday......A Man's Best Friend

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Feb. 13, 2007 - Tackle It Tuesday

Well, I didn't tackle anything today!  However, DH did tackle a major computer upgrade this weekend and I thought it deserved a post!  DH doesn't go out and buy systems that are already put together.  Instead, he chooses to build his own since he can customize it to fit his needs.  He orders all the parts he needs and then takes his computer apart to add the new components!  Sometimes I think he's crazy but I'll have to give him credit.....he really does build a mean system! 

Here is a picture of all of the things that he purchased to put inside his computer.  I know it looks like a small stack but it took several hours to complete the task.

Here he is taking all of the old parts out.....if  you look to the top left, you'll see his computer.....do you see all of the empty space inside?

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Feb. 12, 2007 - Menu Plan Monday--Feb. 12-18

Monday: Pork tenderloin w/steamed green beans and mashed potatoes

Tuesday:  Breakfast for Dinner

Wednesday:  Valentine’s Day *Dinner Out*

Thursday:  Green Enchiladas w/fat free refried beans

Friday:  Chicken Fajita Nachos w/guacamole

Saturday: Southwestern Pizza w/ranch lettuce salad

Sunday: Shrimp Scampi w/Basmati Rice

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Feb. 10, 2007 - Weekend Reflection

I found this at a friends blog and I thought it would be perfect for me!  I need some time to recall the good things that happened this week!  So, here is my first post for Weekend Reflection!

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