Jessie Hall

Today I was proud to live in a small Texas town. There is a little girl that actually lives backed up to my parents who is six years old and has a rare disease called Rasmussen's Encephalitis. To treat her disease her parents are preparing to have half of her brain removed. Today they had a send off for this little six year old. In our town there are 3 elementary schools, 1 sixth grade school, 1 middle school and 1 high school, and 2 private schools. Today they had a parade for Jessie. She rode in a old pink muscle car from school to school and all the students were out lining the roads wearing pink, waving pink ribbons, many of the trees through town were covered with pink bows and lots of the signs in front of business wished her well. As I stood in front of one of the elementary schools and watched her parade go by, I was choked up thinking of all her parents are going through and how brave they must be. I've linked her blog to the sidebar so you can pray for her as she goes through her surgery and see what a sweet girl and what a sweet family this is. God Bless you Jessie. God Bless you Cris and Kristi and your three boys.

My Review of iRobot Roomba® 560 Vacuum Cleaning Robot

Originally submitted at iRobot

iRobot Roomba 500 Series Robots feature dramatic improvements in navigation and floor coverage, edge and corner cleaning, brushes, filters and advanced anti-tangle technology.

• Covers 4 rooms on a single battery charge
• On-board Scheduling
• Self-charging Home Base®
• 2 ...

iRobot Roomba® 560 Vacuum Cleaning Robot

Our Hobo Robo

By I Hate Housecleaning from Aledo, TX on 4/30/2008

 

4out of 5

Pros: Cleans Under Furniture, Hassle Free Operation, Covers Entire Room, Cleans Effectively

Cons: Loud Operation, Can Get Stuck

Best Uses: Carpeted Rooms, Small Rooms, Tile Floors

Describe Yourself: Mother of toddler, Homeowner, Busy household

My Robot's Name: Robo the Hobo

We have lots of tile in our house and this has helped so much with the dust. I love letting it run every evening after supper in the kitchen. With little kids this has helped so much keep the crumbs off the floor. Our house was struck by lightening and the charger and homebase were ruined so be sure to plug it into a surge protector. Customer Service was great and sent a replacement as it was still under warrenty! I am looking into buying the scoomba soon!

(legalese)

Dumb Dory Found Her Mistake

Well it only took me a LOT of wasted time...but hey maybe I'm staving off Alzheimer's then again maybe I am just still avoiding laundry!

Sudoku and the Lollipop Guild

Okay I am ashamed to admit how many times I've done this stupid puzzle that came in the newspaper. But I've come to the conclusion that they MUST have printed an error. So PLEASE somebody out there try it and tell me you couldn't solve it either! And would somebody please clock my husband for waking up singing "We represent the Lollipop Guild" and then preceeding to share it with us...I've now got munchkins in my head! As if Sudoku wasn't enough!

Learn something new everyday

I just learned something new about myself...the depths I will go to avoid doing laundry...I would rather pull weeds in my front lawn wearing a tiara (my 4 year olds idea) than put away already clean mountains of laundry...I'm definitely sick!

Shacky Chic

 

Friends of mine have opened a new online event composed of an ebay store, blog and whatnot...still growing, still becoming. Before they opened their online event they had a wonderful store and the picture above is something I bought from them from their store. It is a transom or a window that used to be over a door. The artistic ladies at Shacky Chic turned it into this lovely case that sits ontop of my piano now filled with antique opera programs that my husband found at a library sale. Isn't it pretty go check them out at www.shackychic.com and see what else they are selling. Be sure to look at the beautiful old house in the pictures. Its 100 years old and one of the shacky ladies is restoring it.

OH I WANT I WANT I WANT

 

There is nothing like a potterybarn catalogue to make me dissatified with my house. Suddenly I want to paint, reupholster, buy furniture, light fixtures, archectural shelving and new carpets. I want to plant outdoors, redo the yard and add a beach view from my northern Texas kitchen window! After perusing my forth PB catalogue this spring I've narrowed it down to painting my bathroom coral bronze from the potterybarn paint palet. The rest of the following pictures will just have to wait!

Pre Chicken Pox Days

 

This is Gabe and some of his buddies at the metroplex autoshow. Aren't they cool?

An Inconvenient Truth

This past week has been crazy to say the least. Gabe had the chicken pox and storms knocked out our internet connection for days...I can't tell you how many posts I wrote in my head that will never be read...but I always do that. It's funny when you start a blog a switch clicks in your head that turns every event in your life into a potential post. I'm constantly writing and then editing in my head. And being ADD a lot never makes it to the actual blog. Anyway I am finally having a SHORT moment to post before we plunge into the blackhole that is make up school work after being gone a week....

...Sometimes Gabe amazes me and this week having him home, outside of him itching like crazy which I must say he did with a minimum amount of complaining, a lot of grace and extreem thankfulness when I would rub him down with lidocaine, was a joy. The two of us can talk on levels about spiritual and emotional topics that I often can't share with adults. Sometimes Gabe's questions and insight really rock my world. One of his requests while staying home this week was to watch An Inconvienent Truth, the global warming movie by Al Gore, and just so that you don't think he is a complete cerebral nerd we also watched, Footloose (which I wouldn't recommend-to many inappropriate parts for a boy his age), Spiderman2, and Nacho Libre. Anyway I jumped at the opportunity and we rented AIT from the local video store. To say we live in a conservative climate that is unfriendly to ecology and democrates is to put it mildly. The fact that Gabe attends a conservative christian school where young christian kids often take things they hear their parents say and extrapolate them to the nth degree of ludicrusiness is pretty common. Gabe has been told in the past that 1. He can't be a christian because he saw the Harry Potter movies, 2. that Barack Obama is a muslim, and so forth and so on. All this to say I make it a point to teach Gabe to think critically about what he hears. 1. What does the Bible say about becoming a christian? We looked and didn't find anything relating to Harry Potter. I showed Gabe Obama's own words refuting that statement that he was a muslim. All this to say I like to see Gabe choose to experience things outside of his cultural box and then to discuss using critical thinking about what we are hearing. For the most part I thought An Inconvenient Truth was interesting and informative. There we some parts that seemed conjecture and were presented as fact, but over all it was a good reminder that we all can being doing something to take care of this planet whether or not you on in the camp that reveres this planet as god or in the camp that should revere this planet as a gift from God, part of God's creation that He pronouned as good and that we are commanded to take care of. The one area that I felt the movie really fell short in was in giving any concrete ideas to the watcher in where to start working to reduce global warming outside of running for congress. So we as a family talked about some of the things we are doing to reduce our energy use, using energy efficient light bulbs, recycling, buying energy efficient appliances, turning off lights in the house, not leaving chargers for ipods and other electronics plugged in, and turning off TV's, computers and such from the surge protector so as not to waste unnecessary power. Some of this ideas seem simplistic but you have to give kids something they CAN do NOW so as to feel success and hope when bigger more sacrifical opportunities come later. So I would encourage you to watch An Inconvenient Truth, read the Ken Morefields Review and discuss it with your family.

Lightening Never Strikes Twice...

BUT Lightening and Chickenpox can strike at the same time!

Gabe has the chicken pox despite receiving the vaccination...funny he was supposed to have a well check today with his doctor. Part of the well check was a booster shot for the chicken pox vaccination...Guess we won't be needing that!

And last night our house was hit by lightening...it blew out or I should say blew up my breadmachine, my cell phone charger and our hot water heater!...I can take the cold showers, the not talking to my friends, but NO HOMEMADE BREAD???? If it wasn't for the fact we are extreemly contagious right now I'd already be scouring Kohl's for a new Breadman Ultimate!

...oh and I've had the chicken pox as a teenager...a not mild but not horrendous case if I remember correctly ...but I am itching ALL OVER...Dang I hate this psychosomatic stuff! I think I'll just take a extended dose of Benadryl and sleep for the next week or so...that is of course unless Emma and Julia come down with the pox...in three weeks...AH this could go on forever!

Poll

Happy Endings or Sad Endings?
Redemption or Justice?
What do you prefer in a story?

Dreams

I dream and then there are days I DREAM. Dreams that I wake up and the world doesn't feel right because the reality of my dream is so much more real than the world around me. I don't have these universe altering dreams often, about two times a year or so, usually more so when I'm pregnant...so it's probably hormonal, but I had one of those reality shifting dreams last night. I am a little unsure about writing down what I dreamed because it involves real people in unreal situations and them acting in ways that they don't act. So I'm going to change it up a little bit for my blog.

In my dream Ray and I went to visit family for Christmas. While visiting our family we found out that one of our sibling had had three kids that we didn't know about. One instance was a set of twin boys that were now about 23 years old that had been given up for adoption. They were happy well adjusted kids and they had found out about us and come back to visit our family for Christmas. Everyone was happy to meet them, we were a little bit sad about what we had missed out of their life but glad that they had been so happy in their life up to this point. They were tall blonde and pretty much the all american guys.

At the same time we found out that this same mom had had another little boy that had not been given up for adoption. This little boy was 16 and his name was Jeffrey. Jeffrey was special. Jeffrey couldn't talk. Jeffrey lived in the town where my family that we had gone to visit lived but no one except the mom and the grandparents knew that Jeffrey was part of our family. Jeffrey was the town mystery. He lived in an abandon house by himself. This town was rural and the towns people made sure Jeffrey got food when he got hungry enough to come around and beg but no one ever tried to take Jeffrey in. Everyone kind of just minded their own business and Jeffrey seemed to be nobody's business.

When I found out that Jeffrey was part of my family I knew immediately that I needed to adopt him. In my dream I was walking through a grocery store looking at strawberries. Half of my mind was trying to remember the ingredients for a dessert and the other half was try to decide if I was going to tell Ray we needed to adopt Jeffrey or should I wait and let God tell Ray and let Ray tell me. I remember the panic in my chest that I couldn't wait, something might happen to Jeffrey. Suddenly our whole family knew Jeffrey belonged to us and what if one of the other parts of our family decided to take him in when I KNEW he was meant for our family.

I told Ray and he reluctantly agreed that we needed to do this. This is where a little bit of reality works into my dream. Ray is intensely loyal to family and would sacrifice anything for family. He definitely believes that we "take care of our own". He also is sometimes a little slower, but not by much, slower to jump in headfirst into BIG circumstances. I think I have a BIG God and I can adapt and make do so to hell with how things look, lets go for it! Anyway we brought Jeffrey home. On the ride home I remember thinking how this was going to change our lives probably in ways we could never imagine, having a son that would never grow up and move away.

Our house is small we already have three kids that live in two bedrooms. We have one extra bedroom that has been converted into an office for Ray and truthfully a huge laundry basket for me. In my dream we moved all of the stuff out of that small room and made it a haven for Jeffrey. We put in a loft and a couch, making it as cozy and private as we could for our special son that wasn't used to living with other people in such close proximity. Jeffrey seemed a bit bewildered by his change of surroundings but for the most part Jeffrey had always just smiled and Jeffrey continued to just smile. He would disappear for hours into his room to be by himself but when he came out again he would smile. Our family LOVED Jeffrey. Gabe LOVED Jeffrey. Jeffrey didn't want to borrow his wii games, Jeffrey didn't mess with his room, but Jeffrey was always there to be with you. Emma for the most part would ignore Jeffrey but if you asked her she would say she loved him and was glad he was around. She like the idea of having a sweet older brother but like Ray she was more cautious and it was going to take her a while to figure out exactly how she felt about Jeffrey. Julia was passionate about Jeffrey. She wanted him to play dolls with her and Jeffrey would sit still and let her paint his nails. Jeffrey didn't mind if she called him Crystal or Jewel and he was always good for a snuggle.

I felt so torn. I was so crushed and disappointed that members of our family could have abandon Jeffrey. I didn't understand how for 16 years someone could have known about him and not taken him in. I felt like there had to be something missing that I didn't understand because this was so out of character for the people I knew. On the other hand I felt like a piece of the puzzle that had always been missing in our family was finally here. Jeffrey was always meant for our family and he had finally showed up. I knew it was going to be hard to have a son that didn't talk and was so simple and would never grow up.

Then I woke up.

The bedroom at the end of our hall feels empty. I still feel hurt that Jeffrey was abondon but even more so I am sad so so sad that there is no Jeffrey. He feels so real. I can see his slight body, brown hair and shy simple smile. Today is grey and rainy but it feels so much more so because reality has come crashing in and Jeffrey isn't here not talking but just being and the five us in my family are so less of who we could be because we don't have life with Jeffrey to change and grow us.

4 Going on 24

Yesterday, Julia, who just turned four asked from her carseat in the back of the van, "Mom, now that I'm four can I call you Lara?"

Baby Pictures

Coffeegal over at La Vida Dulce posted baby pictures and asked us to post ones of us. I am posting a picture of me (on the left) and my now almost 4 year old on the right...spooky huh?

ADHD and Reading

Gabe my ten year old has been diagnosised with ADHD and some other comorbid conditions. ADHD is often misunderstood and can vary from child to child so I'll try and describe some of his symptoms. 1. Impulsivity - this often gets called hyperactivity in some children but in Gabe is rarely comes out as hyperactivity. Usually is displays itself as not thinking through consequences before he says or does something. This also means he can't, with positive and negative results, follow down trails of possibilities. For example when he's sick...he can't imagine being well, when he's disappointed he can't project into the future alternatives that might be fun. This makes delayed gratification especially difficult and sticking to difficult and boring tasks extreemly hard. However, when he is interested in something he will hyperfocus and hours can go by without him looking up. Thankfully he LOVES to read and has voraciously consumed bookcases full of books, this may also be genetic as I do the exact same thing! But for those out there who are looking for books that might interest young boys I thought I would occassionaly list the books he's reading and likes. He is also working on getting AR (accelerated reader) points at school so most of these are AR books as well.
1. Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson 451 pages that Gabe read in three days over spring break...he reads at night to calm his mind down enough to be able to go to sleep...or not when the book is good :) AR Quiz # 83056 Grade Level: 5.2 AR Points: 13.2 Word Count: 83,150.

Real Simple Real Stupid

Okay normally I LOVE the emails and magazine from Real Simple but today I guess they hit a nerve and believe me they were already all exposed and out there just askin to be banged into! In their Save Money All Year Long Column they suggested 1. Don't buy gas on the weekends, buy gas on Tuesday which historically has the lost price of the week. Let me ask all you mom's out there... (all three of you that occassionally read my blog)...Can you really fill up your car on Tuesday and not fill it up on the weekend? How many of you can make it on one tank of gas for a week? Guess I'll start having to bring a bunch of little red gas cans with me when I go to the station on Tuesdays! Peedaddle! (my favorite new swear word from the Mitford books) Their next suggestion was based on the presumption that the average weekly grocery bill is $80.00/week...I live in Texas which is supposed to have one of the lowest costs of living in the US next to Missouri and all I have to say to the $80.00/week is what third world country did they survey? I almost never get out of Walmart under $100.00 and if I go to Sams or Costco forget it $100.00 isn't even close! Now I guess the average family has 1.2 kids and we are 2.8 kids over the average so maybe that is where we blow the curve but BLAST (my other new Mitfordian swear word) this article was more discouraging than helpful!

OH and on a totally ADD tanget...HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO 1.0 of my 3.0 curve blowers!

Reading

I haven't been doing much lately as we've had to rounds of the stomach flu and one round of strep throat since Christmas. But I have found time to start rereading the Mitford Series by Jan Karon. I am currently on book 5 "A New Song". These are books that I will reread many times. It's almost enough to make me become Episcopalian! That and the pictures on the Posie Gets Cosy blog have been just about the only things that have gotten me off my tired butt to clean house and do laundry this month, they make me feel positively crafty...something with three kids who are managing to stay sicker than dogs this past month it absolutely impossible...I'll have to just be satisfied with cleaning the bathroom and trying a new airfreshner :)

YouTube and Dying

I'm in mourning today because one of my favorite movies stars is dead. I loved Heath Ledger in a lot of his movies although I readily admit I never saw the ol' Brokeback movie..that would have ruined entirely too many day dreams...just kidding. Actually one of my favorite scenes with him was his dance in A Knights Tale which thanks to Youtube we can watch over and over...so in a sense for those of us who only knew Heath in a superficial way he's not really dead.
On a similar note this isn't the first celebrity death that has surprised me this month. Yesterday I googled Madeline L'Engle to get a complete listing of her books to check against my collection and I was shocked to see she died this past September! How did I not know that? What the heck? I read the news highlights in Yahoo everyday, the headlines in the magazine rack at the grocery store at least twice a week! How did I not know one of my favorite authors died! I'm in denial! If anyone hears that JRR Tolkien or CS Lewis dies I don't want to know...Just kidding I know they are already gone-almost all my favorite authors are...I guess there in lies the problem. I usually only read old books and yahoo headlines...must be leaving a gap somewhere

Deep Earth Shattering Important

I've decided to go organic! And to that end we are going to have a garden and a compost. To begin this lofty goal, I need to start composting now so that I can have the soil ready by spring for planting. I'm happy to say that my compost is already up and running, it is just in sort of an unusual place....the floorboard of my Honda Odyssey! I swear there are enough spilled drinks, frys, chicken nuggets etc. to generate enough breaking down bio fuel that they are going to soon be drilling for coal in my own car and I am positive I have the drilling/mineral rights on my Honda! Now in other time halting delimmas I swore I wouldn't be sucked in to watching or caring about the whole Brittney Drama but I do have one question...WHAT DOES HER REAL HAIR LOOK LIKE? I have seen pics of her with the pink hair which I am pretty confident isn't her real hair and then I've seen pictures of her with long brown hair with a hair line that defies wigdom but I don't think even celebraties can grow hair that long in that short of time....Okay all you deep thinking, celebrete knowing readers out there weigh in and tell me what's up! I've stopped cleaning my house to post this so ya know it is important!

This takes the cake

 

Today I read on Martha Stewart.com that she suggests that everyone make a New Year's Resolution to make one cake a month. Today I had some apples that were going to go bad if they weren't used, so I used them...and made an german Apple Kuchen! I didn't have sugar so I used brown sugar and I can tell you it looks better than it tasted...oh well.