Sunday

Two weeks ago my kids asked at the dinner table on a Friday evening if we could start going to church again. When asked why they responded with enthusiasm that they wanted to learn more about God and Jesus. I suppose my answers to their questions are just not enough anymore. So I agreed and since we had been planning for forever to try out the little church right down the street from us we figured that it was a good time to go. So Sunday morning we got up and dressed (both girls in dresses and gladly agreed to put them on and need I say this was a first in a long time) and off to the little church down the street we go. The kids attended Sunday school first and Kenneth and I wandered and talked with other members in the fellowship hall around the coffee pot while we waited for Sunday School to be over. Everyone seemed very nice and very welcoming. Then came the church service. Now this is the part that could make it or break it for me but learning that the retired priest from the church that I went to when I was a child now is a member here made me feel a bit more comfortable. We all entered and I was happy to see that the church had the thirteen stations of Christ on the walls around and that there was Holy water in the font at the door made me feel even more happy. (more happy? well, you get my drift) I was very pleased with the rest of the service too. It is "high" Episcopal, for those who don't know, basically it is as Catholic as you can get and still be Episcopalian. It is similar to the services I remember as a child. Haha, when we got back from the alter from taking communion, Caroline asked me, "Did we just get married?". Too cute.

The church has a big children's program which not only includes sunday school but also a children's literagy during the service. The kids go out for literagy just before the readings and come back after the sermon and before communion. It is perfect so Kenneth and I can sit and listen and not be worried about the kids getting wrestless. They also have a Wednesday evening program for the kids in the fall and spring (we missed it this spring) and they have an active EYC.

Well, we have made it there two weeks in a row; a record for this family in quite a while. The kids love it and Kenneth tolerates it. So we are back and it feels good.

Random Thoughts

Work with me here...

First I just thought you should know that I tried the ripping a phone book thing and I could actually do it. Well, I didn't completely rip it apart but I started too and it does work. The only problem was that we still need our phone book so I couldn't rip it all the way. Sorry zebra, yes the first scene of the video for the phone book is a little odd looking and can be misconscrewed as possibly something rated higher than "G". I am going to leave it on there and eventually it will move off the front page of my blog.

Next, have you ever started to write and nothing comes out? Well that has happened to me several times this week. I have been in a little funk this week. I don't know what started it and I hope to end it soon. It started about Tuesday and has lasted through today. I haven't really wanted to do anything. I haven't been interested in teaching either which makes for a fairly boring workday. Hopefully it will disappear as quickly as it came. It may have something to do with my diet. I have gone off the Atkins diet this week and am eating more carbs than I had been. That may have had an affect on my behavior. No everyone, I am not depressed. It is a funk. It could be PMS which would be right for this time of the month. Anyway, on with life...

I have been working on a new project recently. It is a bathmat. I am knitting it and it is pretty cool looking. I am pretty excited about it and have been working on it every chance I get. It is coming along well and I am about half way done. I also tried out a potholder last night right before I went to bed. I crocheted it with three strands of Peaches and Cream all cotton yarn. It is very stiff but it looks like it will work well. I am excited to use it and see if it will really work. Never know friends out there, you may all be receiving these for Christmas this year. Family, you are definitely getting something handmade. There is something about hand making the things you use everyday in the home. I get a sense of pride in that. Maybe I am weird but hey, I live in my own little workd, that's okay, they know me here!

FINALLY.....

Well, it must be a sad day for many people. However, I was totally ecstatic that Sanjaya is going home. The only depressing part is that he will be going on tour with the others at the end of the season. I, honestly, felt very sorry for him. I think he really thinks he is a good singer. He is not bad but, really, he was playing with the big dogs and he didn't belong in the yard with them. Now we can get down to business with really choosing a good singer. I have vascilated with a few in recent weeks. Now if you go back in my blog several weeks ago I announced that I was going for Blake. I still like Blake but I am becoming attached to Melinda Doolittle and Jordan. I also like the bald guy (name slipped my mind). He did a good job with Country week. It will be interesting to see how it will all pan out in the end.

Oh, yes, America, I DO vote weekly!!

Rip a phonebook in half

Today's random lesson!! I am going to try it but I need to find a phone book that we don't use. It actually looks kind of easy.

Back to School

So today we went back to school from Spring Break. I must say that it was a great spring break and I do feel refreshed. I learned something this past week. If you are going to feel like you had a vacation you must go somewhere. We spent the first weekend here at home for Easter and then Monday morning the kids and I headed down to the beach for the rest of the week. It was a great time and K joined us on Thursday night. He had to work all week. We ended up coming home early on Saturday because of the huge Noreaster coming in with high winds. Because we came home a day early I was able to get laundry done and do a little cleaning. By yesterday evening I felt like I had been out of school for a lot longer than just one week. I think the illusion has to do with the fact that we went away and then came home again and had some time at home too. This way I didn't feel rushed to get ready for today by coming home on Sunday and having to hurry to be ready for this morning. I had a whole day to get ready.

But I ramble. Short story is that I had a great break and spent good time with family.

Only 11 more weeks before I am out for the summer!! Yippee.... should I start counting down now or wait a while more?

Snow in Spring!

I was going to post this before the Easter Pictures but we got a freak snow storm on Saturday morning. I took a few pictures of outside, our Dogwood tree and Caroline's snowman.

Easter Morning!

Here are some pictures of us Easter Morning. We were very excited to see what the Easter Bunny brought. Finding eggs and bicycles, candy and more!! Now we are off to the beach for the rest of the week to relax, refresh, and find a bit of sanity before the last 9 weeks of school begins. This is our favorite time of the year for the beach. It is still cool and there aren't many people there. The kids play under the house on the large driveway, we go for rides and walks on the beach and just be us for a while.

Easter Eggs

We love dying Easter eggs!I thought you all would enjoy our fun!

Guess What?

I missed American Idol last night. I did see a few highlights of the show on the Today Show and I heard that Sanjaya was worse than ever. I am excited to see it tonight. Sanjaya is this your week?

I spend way too much time on this subject...

American Idol is on TV again tonight. I am excited to see who will bomb worse than Sanjaya again.(Yes zebrafeet, I DO agree with your comments from the last post!) I can just see it now though, all these tweens getting ready to dial the numbers for Sanjaya right at the end of the show. They just keep hitting redial, redial, redial. They ooh and ahh over him. I can't believe he is the next heartthrob! But then again I got all tingley over Leif Garrett, Shawn Cassidy, and Ralph Machio. Who did you fantasize about when you were a tweeny bopper? Come on be honest... I wanna hear!!

American Idol again!

I thought Chris didn't do his best on Tuesday and I understand why he was voted off but come on America, get real. Sanjaya needs to go. It has now become a huge joke and he is playing up the hair thing to the end. What next week? A shaved head? That'll do it cause then he won't be able to play with his hair anymore. Okay, now for something I thought I would never say....Sanjaya is actually getting a little better each week. He certainly has a great following with the little kids. But two things remain the same 1. he still sucks even though he is getting a bit better (a BIT mind you not a lot) and 2. I will be PISSED if he goes much further. I give him 2 weeks more at most!

Diet is going good. I am in a groove now and I have more energy than before and I am totally afraid to eat anything not on the "list". I gave up corn dogs and baked beans and applesauce cake today at work. So I know I am gaining a lot in willpower!!

High School Friends

My high school class reunion is coming up and it will be our 20th! I can't believe it has been that long but I remember our 5th (the last one I went to) and I felt like it was too soon as most of us were just getting out of college or still there or in grad school. Not much had changed and we hadn't really started to plow a path through life yet. But now, 20 years later, I am excited to see everyone!

I recently got back in touch with some old friends and had a great conversation last night with a dear old friend. The amazing part was that immediately as soon as I heard his voice it was like we had never lost touch with each other. I find it really neat (lack of better words) that no matter how long you have been away from great friendships forged long long ago that you can pick up where you left off. Those friendships I know will last a lifetime.

It makes me even more excited to see everyone again from high school.

Atkins - Day Three

So I have made it through day three. I feel like a Prilosec commercial! This was a tough day. We woke up earlier than usual so that I could fix myself breakfast (as well as the rest of the family). It wasn't so bad and I actually got to work earlier than usual. Lunch was fine. I had a Tendergrill Chicken Salad from Burger King. It is just at the end of the street so it is an easy grab. I looked at the carb count on the light salad dressing and it had 4 CARBS! So I didn't eat that and this was for the first time a pretty good salad without dressing. The chicken made it though and I made sure that I had a bite of chicken in every bite. Then came the hard part. It is my new step-father's 65th birthday today and he and my mother came over to the house for dinner and CAKE! Well, it was hard and I have no will power but I managed to fix a pretty hardy meal (all on the plan) AND I cut and served cake! I didn't have one myself and my husband the wonderful soul he is chose not to have any either. Instead we opted for a hit of whipped cream (NO CARBS!!!) The whipped cream actually gave me a bit of sweet in my mouth and I didn't sit there and stare at the cake wishing and wanting. Afterward, I packed up the cake (mom had brought it) and sent it home with them. The entire thing. Otherwise it would have been calling my name in the middle of the night or really right before bedtime.

I am very proud of myself for such will power I never knew I had! You should comment on how well I did!! Yippee me!! I am jumping for joy.

The new me.....well....not yet...but soon!

Okay I have survived one day on a diet! Yes, bring on the applause. I don't do diets. I just eat my way through the day and then plan to start the next day. The kids don't help at all when in the morning they say, "Let's have pancakes!" or "Let's have waffles! Mommy, your waffles are the BEST!" Which I got this morning too. So I found a frozen waffle from last weekend in the freezer and presto Nicholas had a waffle. I didn't even snitch a little piece. So then I found some pancakes in the freezer for Alexandra. Bingo, two down quick. I mix up a couple of eggs for an omelette (yes they are on my diet) and think about the cheese and ham that will be inside. Put away the yummy syrup quickly. Done! Now for the omelette, oh no I have another child to feed. Caroline wants cereal, yippee it is quick and easy and not hard to stay away from. Bingo in the bowl milk on top, Done! Back to the omelette. Sausage is done too. I put it on the table. No carbs yet. Wow, I am doing good. I could like this diet. So far I have been awake 35 minutes.

Lunch was interesting. After 4 hours at the soccer fields we are all starving. I am afraid to go home, there are brownies on the counter that I made a few days ago. On the way home there is a Burger King. Did you know they will put any hamburger/sandwich in a bowl for you without the bun? Well, now I do too. I didn't want a salad I wanted a burger. "Double Stacker with Bacon in a bowl please". Wow, this diet can be okay. I go to the grocery this afternoon and I buy steak, sauerkraut, bratworsts, cheese and salad stuff! All on the diet!! String cheese for snack and tonight for dinner, well I couldn't let the steak sit and we had a heaping salad, sauteed onions and mushrooms too. All on the diet!

So I survived the first day. We will see how I do tomorrow but they say with alcoholics "one day at a time". This is my Lent turbo-charged! If you haven't guessed I am trying to do the Atkins Diet. I feel like I give up bread and sweets and fruit for a little while but I get to eat meats, burgers, sausage, and bacon instead. And Diet Coke is allowed!! My thought is that I can do it for two weeks and see where I am. My goal is 10% of my current body weight. That is a little over 20lbs. I should be able to do that. Then I will consider another goal, or not. So I weighed myself today to get a baseline, but I am telling you I am feeling skinnier already!!

I will keep you all up to date with how things are going. 20+ lbs, that is all. Tell me it will be easy!! Any suggestions or words of encouragement are welcome!!

Men and their toys!

So here it is. Last summer, in June, we went to an antique tractor and farm festival on an historic plantation about an hour from here: Chippokes State Park. While we were there we saw many great antique farm implements and tractors galore. We even watched a tractor pull and the kids took part in a toy tractor "petal pull". Alexandra won first place in her category. Back to my story. While we are there Kenneth falls in love with the old tractors. We spend two beautiful but hot days there and since then he has been trying to find a reason to buy a tractor. He started with all kinds of excuses, mostly rediculous. But he finally wore me down this January. So he looked on ebay and found this one at a reasonable price and he bought it. He went to Pennsylvania and picked it up last week. He is so excited about this tractor. And I am happy for him. We plan to have a BIG garden which I am sure you will hear a lot about in the coming months. But, wow, the bigger the boy the bigger their toys!

American Idol again!

So Sanjaya didn't get voted off again! He is obviously the worst singer and I don't understand this campaign to keep him on the show. We are picking off great singers. Yes, eventually they would end up leaving too but give them another week. They deserve it. This Sanjaya Malakar guy is horrible and his last rendition of the Kinks song really sucked worse than his attempts at singing Stevie Wonder.

Put the guy out of his misery! He needs to be let go. Next week if he doesn't get voted off I am going to do something drastic. I don't know what yet but it will be something.

Oh, by the way, if you read my treatise on John Edwards yesterday you probably thought, "wow she is really worked up over this". Well I still am but after I finished my blog on him I emailed his campaign suggesting that he stop campaigning. I know it probably won't ever get to him but there is always hope!! I am still mad at him.

Kenneth's Peculiar Title

Grand Duke Kenneth the Fifteenth of Old Throcking in the Hole

My New Name!!

This is my peculiar aristicratic title. From now on please call me:

Honourable Lady Whitney the Formidable of Featherstonehaugh St Fanshaw

If you want to find your's click here.

John Edwards

I watched John Edwards' press conference on CNN today at lunch time. I was impressed by his wife and his ability to remain so composed during the discussion of horrible news. I was also glad to see that they decided to get this all out in the open and have her doctor there to answer any medical questions the press had. It was very noble of them and I appreciate their honesty and openness in such a stressful time.

Now, what surprised me was the fact that he did not announce that he was quitting his campaign. What in the world? Does he hate his wife? After 30 years of marriage he said, they have been through some rough times and they know that they must hold their head up high and keep looking at the positives. FINE! GOOD! WAY TO DEAL! But anyone in their right mind and anyone who loves their wife so dearly would have quit no matter what. I don't care if Elizabeth said keep running. I don't care if she said she would kill him if he didn't continue to run. He is being a fool if he thinks that it was the right thing to do to keep going.

SHE HAS CANCER! BONE CANCER! IT IS INCURRABLE! Do you know what that means? SHE IS GOING TO DIE! It may not be tomorrow and it may be many years to come but she is going to go through chemo again and have other treatment and she is still going to die. The right thing to do is quit the campaign and stay home with her. Her time is limited and he is a selfish fool if he thinks that he has plenty of time with her. Her days are limited.

Okay, let's play this out. He continues and wins let's say. Then we have a president who is worrying about his wife while trying to run the country. AND I hear it is no small feat to run the US. And we will have a president who is distracted? Nope, sorry you lose my vote right there. I can't have a president who is distracted and not totally focused on our country and able to make sound decisions. What if she gets sick while they are in the White House? He will so regret not having the ability to spend time with her in her healthy days before she got sick. Now let's talk about the campaign itself. It is a tough and gruling road to the White House. We have seen candidates collapse from sheer exhaustion. She has to be there with him and campaign next to him. Her days are going to be gruling too. Won't that stress affect her health? Yup it will and she is a FOOL if she doesn't think so! Let's say they campaign to the end and he loses. Then she gets sick and he will again regret not being able to spend time with her while she is healthy because he was so selfish and has no presidency to show for it.

My suggestion to you Mr. Edwards, quit the campaign. You are third in line for the Democratic ticket right now, you lost the last campaign with Kerry, and in recent polls when Al Gore is thrown in the mix you are behind HIM who is not running! You need to bow out now while Elizabeth is still well, enjoy your days, weeks, and months, and years with her and your two little kids and have no regrets when she dies.

You won't get my vote this time. I can't in my right (or left) mind give my vote to a man who doesn't want to spend every living waking moment with the woman of his heart who's days are numbered. May that number be high and you have many happy years together. Just do the right thing.

Is anyone else having trouble creating a blog?

I have created two blogs and then went to publish and low and behold they are not there. I find out that when I click on create blog my screen comes up with errors mainly the top bar that gives me the ability to boldface or italicize type, link to other sites, and add pictures, etc doesn't come up and then when I hit publish it doesn't post. Anyone else having trouble or is it just me?