The New Year

Apparently I am good at starting blog posts but never publishing. This one I started days ago and well I named the post and that was it! HA! I apparently drew a blank right after that or my ADOS(attention deficit OH SHINY!!!) kicked into gear. So I guess I will do a bit of a blog about the new year. I am not big on making resolutions because I am like all the other millions of people that make them and don't keep them. I do plan to make some changes in my life. I have to do better in my bible studies. I am hit and miss at best. It seems like there is no quiet time. I am going to start staying up after everyone at night and getting a bit of quiet time. I cant seem to drag myself out of bed early and setting the alarm would just in sure that I wake the whole house up. So I think this is my best chance of quiet time. Rowdy isn't the tricky one with bible study but oh that Paisley makes it rather hard. I have to do better and am hoping that I will do just that. Oh, this isn't something I am waiting till January 1 for either. Now this other one is probably the one I put off...hahaha. I need to exercise. I almost put more but who am I kidding? I need to exercise PERIOD! I downloaded the C25K app for my phone the other day and I think I will start it. It should be interesting to say the least but I know I need to do something. First step is knowing right. Well I got that step down now for step 2. DOING it. I plan to start that Wednesday. What time? I don't know. Where? I guess at the park down the road. Why do I "guess" the park? Because the stinking park is right next to the highway and C25K does jogging. UGH. Gotta start somewhere though. I was doing Sweatin to the oldies but Rowdy had me laughing so hard making fun of Richard Simmons that I gave up. I probably burned a lot of calories with all the laughing though. Kris says he is going to start getting up at 4am. I guess that means that he will set the alarm at 3 and hit snooze for an hour then get up and run and come home, shower and be at work by 6. HA! He hits snooze so many times that I have to kick him awake cause it drives me crazy. I call it his kick start! bahaha. When I worked he was only allowed to hit snooze 3 times because I overslept once because I thought he was the one hitting snooze and I just kept sleeping through the beep. HA!
Another thing for the New Year is we really want to do some research on adopting. We are still praying about this and will continue but I think some research needs added into it. Neither one of us knows the first thing about adopting and what is needed and such. So we shall see. We started praying about this in September and I am rather excited to see what the Lord has planned if anything for us down this avenue.

A funny about Paisley. She can not get off her back for anything. If she is playing with brother and ends up on her back she is like a turtle and cant get rolled over at all. It is quite comical to see. She gets in her bean bag and its double trouble she is really stuck. I have been trying to keep Rowdy from getting her up because she has to learn to get up. Crazy kid!

I stink at sewing and other none sense

Ok, so I have faced a few facts the last few days and sewing is one of those facts. The other is laundry detergent making. So here goes. Rowdy's pants could be used as a shirt and pants since the crotch to waist band is 2 foot long. HA! But they fit BUT I have restricted him to not sitting down at all only standing for the fittings. They are done. I will post pictures later if you are lucky but I don't plan to do that till after Christmas morning. Now Paisley's gown is a whole different ordeal. It was a doozey to put together and Mom told me that ruffles were easy to do she must have had her fingers crossed behind her back because it was not easy at all. I did finally finish the gown and it's snappy looking. Just don't look closely at the fact that the ruffle on the sleeve is sewn down to the neck line. WOOPSIE! It gives it character and I don't figure these will hold up after one washing of laundry so no biggie. Oh, did I mention that Mom cut out the material for the gown and she cut the first piece out upside down so we used that as the back so essentially now him and Paisley match even more! HA! As of right now I am not going to be sewing anymore for quite sometime and I am not sure that I will ever tackle pajama's again. The other fact that I learned this week is that I am not going to be making anymore laundry soap ever again. I just don't think it is working very good. I have tried tweeking it with more this and that but Kris' pants just aren't coming very clean and his shirts came out smelling like his deodorant still. So I am out on making it but I will continue to make the other cleaners.I do really like the blue magic cleaner and so it will always be in my arsenal of cleaning products and I have used it just about every where.

Hair Update: Psoriasis is not better but not worse. Now I have over working oil glands though and my hair is super greasy. I am still on the search for a natural remedy for that. My Dad had really oily hair and it is hereditary so I know where I got it now to just control is. It does seem semi worse since starting the baking soda wash. I guess I might have created another problem solving one problem but I am sticking with the soda since it doesn't irritate the psoriasis. I wonder if my random chin hairs come from my Dad too. bahahaha I have read that regular vinegar with water as a rinse might help. I think I might try it. I was told that Apple Cider Vinegar makes oily. I would guess that the soda is stripping away to many impurities and my head is over compensating. My hair doesn't look oily to even myself and I really wouldn't have known I had a problem if it wasn't for my pillow.

Well it is Christmas Eve tomorrow and I am just about ready. Sure miss Dad and wish he could be with us again or we could celebrate Christ birth in Heaven with him that would be fine. He was always Santa and would hand out the Christmas presents from under the tree to everyone. He mostly liked watching everyone open their gifts and look at their expressions. Especially the kids. He never told me that but I caught him watching the boys and Torie several times and know that he enjoyed that part. Someday we will be with him again and so I will hang on to each memory till then.

Christmas Candy and more...

I started making a few goodies today. I made Peanut Butter Christmas Candies. They were super easy and super yummy but they are so sweet that you might try to bite your ear. You can find the recipe on my pinterest board with the name Things I have tried good and bad. I also made hard cinnamon candy because it is Kris' favorite candy. I forgot to put red food coloring in it. I lost all senses when I put the cinnamon oil in the scalding hot syrup and couldn't think of where I keep food coloring. If you need a good cleaning out of the sinuses then you should make cinnamon candy. My eyes, nose and cheeks were burning. I am not sure why the cheeks were burning (Not the cheeks you sit on either heehee) Anyways we had to turn on some fans so everyone could breathe. I got some Christmas presents wrapped today after our one time shopping trip. Yes, I said one time we went last night and got everything that we could afford! HA! So we hit Target because they really have stuff that isn't just like everyone else. Then we went to Old Navy and found Paisley a winter coat for $8. I was so excited about an $8 coat. It's a cute one too! HA! So then we ate at Chik-Fil-A for dinner and headed to Wal-Mart to finish up our shopping. Then went to get the kids from Mom's house and stashed the presents. I haven't wrapped them all yet but will get that in a few days. Tomorrow Mom is coming over and we are going to tackle Christmas cookie making. That should be interesting. I didnt buy any sprinkles because I just got all of last years swept up. UGH! Those rascals roll all over the place. I should have saved those ones I swept up! hahaha Ok, I am not that thrifty! Tonight I made Long Boy burgers which I would describe them as meatloaf on a bun and the bun got rock hard. I'll stick with my regular ole meatloaf next time. We have a busy Christmas this year. Christmas Eve we are going to Kris' Mom's office to have Christmas with Brittany (niece) because she goes to her Dad's that next day and we haven't seen her in a few Christmas due to that. Then we come back to Moms and we eat Chicken and noodles. Mom makes the best homemade noodles. YUM! Then on Christmas Day we open our gifts here then go to Kris' Moms house and have lunch there at 12:30.

Last night Kris took me shopping for my present from him. We decided that I needed new clothes the most so we went to Cato's. We started in and just picking things out here and there and by the time we got to the back of the store I had about 10 items to try on. So I proceeded in and Kris kept bringing me stuff to try on and said we have a lot that we are getting. I finally said you realize we cant afford all this stuff. Well he didn't believe me so I gave him the "likes" pile and he started adding in his head and I finally got done trying stuff on and figured out what all I wanted. So I narrowed it down to 2 shirts, 2 pairs of jeans, 1 denim skirt. Ending up we went over the allotted amount of money by $20 but I was able to get all those items for $120. We got out to the car and Kris said "Man, women's clothes are so expensive." I cracked up laughing and said I thought I did really good. He said my jeans cost $15. He did have a good point. Mine have bling on the rear cause that is just what I needed! HA! Plumbers don't need bling but then again neither does a big booty. Oh well. I got some! So we get going and Kris said "I don't think we should have anymore girls" I really laughed at that. I gently reminded him that it wasn't up to him. All in all it was a nice night and we got a lot of talking in....errr...I did a lot of talking and he did a lot of uh huh, yes, hmming. Most of the time he is listening unless he is watching TV during my rambling then I like to tell him weird stuff like Rowdy fell out of the boat today while eating a banana and he lost his toenail in the mud or something similar.

Again just a friendly reminder. This is my thoughts and they are jumbled in my head and I am afraid they come out just as jumbled and well I stink at punctuation and grammar. I shall learn both of these with Rowdy. I am not a lost cause...:)

Hair Update

Ok, so I forgot to blog about my hair. So here is the scoop and I might repeat myself from another post. I cant remember and I am not going to go and look. So here goes. A couple of Sunday's ago I used regular ole shampoo that I had been using prior to this no shampoo. Boy, did I pay for it and honestly it set me back over a week with itching, flaking and such. I am happy to be back to using baking soda and water again and then I am doing touch ups with apple cider vinegar. I do think it helps my head more so if I wash it daily in which I am not in the habit of doing unless we go some where. In saying that I have no plans at all to go back to using shampoo but I am not brave enough to not use mousse and hair spray. I don't want to give Bozo a run for his money! I have read on many sites saying that if you have oily hair then the Apple Cider Vinegar might not be a good idea on the roots and my hair is very oily(the reason I don't wash daily) so I use the ACV on a cotton ball on my hair line spots and in my ears. I must say that sometimes it burns the dickens outta me but its better than being flaky. I mean I am flaky enough not to have to constantly wipe my shoulders off. Everyone asks me how the baking soda could possibly get my hair clean but I honestly think that my hair is more clean using it than when I was using the shampoo. You do have to work at the scalp a little more but that isn't any biggie to me. I usually always scrub mine cause it feels gooooood. I use a condiment bottle from the store to get the baking soda/water down to my scalp. I wouldn't recommend the condiment bottle cause it leaks like a sieve but I do recommend something with a tip so you can get down in there. This isn't for everyone but it is for me for sure. It is amazing the uses for baking soda and then ACV both. They are both quite versatile.

Busy Week

I really thought I had planned this week all out of making some Christmas goodies to eat and making some Christmas ornaments. So far this week hasn't gone as I planned but I am not worried cause I know that it has gone as God intended for it. Yesterday we did a bunch of running around with the Santa Train coming into town and the Chamber helping I went down there and well didn't do much but let the kids go through the train which I must say is pretty neat. I was thinking that we had been through the one in Stilwell one year but I don't remember it being like that so I must have dreamed it. Last night as I was holding Paisley and trying to get her to go to sleep I noticed that yet again she had this knot on the back of her head so I had Kris feel around on her head to see if he could feel it. He did notice it and said that we maybe should get it looked at since I had felt it before. So then I started worrying. Yeah, I did. I tried really hard not to but I did. So this morning I got up and got a hold of her Dr and had it looked at this afternoon. Thankfully it was just a swollen lymph node. I thought it probably was but I didn't know where all the lymph nodes are. Before going to the Dr I went to the grocery store and then came home and started lasagna for tonight's dinner and then a big pan for Krista and Dean tomorrow night for dinner. It was rather nice to come home from the Dr and just have to throw the pan in the oven to heat, butter and garlic the bread up and toss into the oven. Although tonight for the 2nd time in my whole life I used the broiler. Needless to say we didn't have bread with dinner. I turned the broiler on high and walked off and didn't think about the bread catching on fire and setting off ALL the fire alarms in the house. I noticed they were on fire in the oven and I opened the door and then started laughing and screaming I don't know what to do. Kris came in and saved the day and put the fire out and yelled "Dinner is done". Meanwhile Rowdy ran around opening doors and turning on fans. I really have trained that boy well. Dinner was very tasty though even if the bread was burnt crisp. So after dinner I started working on the two sheet cakes for tomorrow nights dinner at Church. The first one came out burnt on one end and then running out of the pan on the other. So then I moved the racks around and straightened them up. I guess when the repair man was here he moved them. So I got that fixed and got the other one in the oven. I waited till it was almost done and started making the frosting which seized up on me and wasn't spreadable to speak of. I finally got it but the cake looks like junk so I plan to cut it asap! I need to make another one but I will do that in the morning I am done for the night.

A day for sewing

So today I started sewing. I haven't sewn anything since High School and I believe that I wrote about that in my last post. So in saying that I started out the day with Rowdy's PJ pants that I had decided to make. So after some pointers from Mom last night I was prepared to get started. Or so I thought. So I got started off with finding the pants that I was going to use as the pattern and I got those all laid out. I then got the material ready to be laid out and I then cut them out. Two just like Mom said. So then I have these two weird looking things that have no legs. Well anyways I text Mom asking where the legs were going to come from cause well I was out of material. So here is a picture of the beginning stage.

Here is the picture of the leftovers that I was debating on how to make legs from this little bit. 

So after my panic text to Mom she sped right over. Ok Ok, she was on her way to the Church anyways so she just swung by here to help the "Lost cause" her words I am pretty sure. So she came over and explained to me how this works and told me what to sew first which by the way was WRONG! So I went about sewing the hip areas and in reality you should sew the legs or crotch area first and the hip area last. Oh well I did the hips, then legs, then I sewed the crotch area up but not before breaking the needle cause Mom assured me that it wouldn't hurt a thing to just leave the pins in the fabric and go right over. WRONG again. Anyways the needle broke and so I proceeded to take the machine apart looking for the needle tip and replacing the needle which was very easy I must say but you must get the screw really tight other wise while sewing the needle will just slip right down. Yep, I did it. Anyways I get all the little gadgets back together to the best of my knowledge for the 3rd time and start to sew and the machine started making a really strange noise and not moving to much. So I grabbed the fabric off and it wouldn't come loose. It was a huge mess under there so I got everything cut loose and opened the area where the bobbin goes and here is the sight. 

So I proceeded to untangle the mess and figure out how to load the bobbin back into this area. So after all this I was well on my way to sewing some great looking pants. Did I mention that I didn't pay attention to the pattern on the material to make sure that as I was cutting I had the pattern going the same way? Well I didn't. I didn't pay any attention to that at all and so we have one leg that the pattern is right and the other leg the pattern in wrong. I am fine with that. I mean really the pants only need to make it for pictures on Christmas morning. HA!! So I proceeded on with my sewing and folded the pants right side out and VOILA there was a hole in the crotch. If it wasn't as low as it is then I would try to say it was a pee hole but well it is lower than that. So for now I have left the pants alone because I am not sure how I should try to fix that area. Then I will work on the elastic weight band, and then the hems on the pant legs. So after I got done with what damage I could do on the pants then I made a Wal-Mart sack bag holder. It was easy enough and it doesn't have a pee hole so I guess it turned out good. 

So in saying all this. I have had a very entertaining day and really have enjoyed laughing at myself all day.

Well today was our official last day for school till after New Year's. Let the fun begin! I may wish that I didn't stop the routine of school but I think we will have fun. We plan to do a little craft each day and then some baking and candy making. Rowdy is pretty excited and he is very good at helping with the baking. It is a crying shame that we are both very craft challenged. We did successfully make a paper chain for the tree in their room. It looks really cute too. I also made a star out of Popsicle sticks and twine. I think it looks weird but others have said it is cute. Tomorrow I start my sewing projects. I am really hoping that my Mom will come and help me. I really haven't a clue about sewing and so well it could be bad. I think I will start with making a sack to hold sacks! HA! You know one of those that you can stuff your wal-mart sacks into. I think I'll start with one of them. If you never see pictures of anything I have sewn then well you will know that it wasn't a good thing. I must say that in home-ec in school I made what was suppose to be a duffel bag and it ended up being the perfect bag to hold a bull horn you know big on one end and small on the other. My nephews loved that silly bag and carried it till it was falling apart which truth be known probably wasn't all that long. I have realized recently that I really have only baking/cooking as a skill. I wonder if it is lack of patience or effort? That is something for me to think about. I am leaning towards patience since the star really ticked me off today! HA! I think I will try to get better at that because Rowdy really enjoys doing those kinds of things. Well it is almost bed time around here and I have a few things left to do. Oh, and after great debate on getting GAC to watch the NFR(we usually upgrade our package for December) and ending up cancelling the usual upgrade due to price we got Free Preview of GAC!!! Kris was beside himself. Me not so much but I can find other things to do. 

PS: The NFR starts tonight...

Playing Catch up...

Phew! I haven't done this in quite a while. I go to type something and my thoughts have been such a jumbled mess that I talk myself out of it. Well no more of that so get ready for a few run on sentences and some rather alarming grammatical errors. Grammatical wow what a big word for me at 8:30am. HA! Ok, here goes.

Thanksgiving: We had a great Thanksgiving. Started a new tradition of going around the room and saying what we are thankful for. Had a few grumbles from my nephew but other than that the only hiccups were the tears that were shed. Those weren't anything new for our family functions. Sappy people we are. Ok, so we miss Dad and think of him a lot. I am Thankful that I still have my Mom though. We could have lost both parents and so I am thankful to still have her. We all ate a lot, lazed on the couches, relaxed, and did a whole lot of nothing and boy was it nice. Ronda cleaned the kitchen cause she is such a good girl and I had to pee(we call that dish water diarrhea in our house). All in all it was a good Thanksgiving with lots of reminders of what we are blessed with.

Hair: Well my hair update would be that the baking sod and water mixture doesn't seem to be making my psoriasis 100% better but it does seem to be not irritating my psoriasis like shampoo does. I didn't realize how much that means till I jumped in the shower on Sunday morning and was out of the mixture and so I just used shampoo and my scalp was mad at me all day. I have also discovered that if I wash my hair daily that it is much better on my psoriasis. I don't wash it daily because I haven't washed my hair daily since I was working. Anyways I am for sure sticking with the baking soda and water mixture if for no other reason than it doesn't bother my scalp and seems to clean my hair. Actually my hair felt more clean and soft after using the baking soda rather than the shampoo. Weird, huh?

Grouchy: Our house has been grouchy. I mean the whole place. I think it all boiled down to me. I haven't had a break from kids for several months and I think it is getting the best of me. Anyways funny how we think we are having to put up with grouchy people only to find out that maybe we are the grouch that is causing grouchy people. Oh well. It is all better now and I am less grouchy and getting a break from kids for a few hours today. I had planned to leave the house and hit WM and wonder aimlessly around for a few hours but I am car less and so I guess I will clean house although taking a long shower and a nap sounds better I am just sure that I wont do it. It will be nice to get somethings put away before Christmas is here and so everything is ready. We will see what I get done. I guarantee that whatever doesn't get done will still be here when I get ready to do it!

Rowdy: So Rowdy tells me all the time that he loves me. Just at random times during the day he will announce that he loves me. I love that he is so open and comfortable to tell me that no matter is who is around. Well in saying that he doesn't mind who is around it cracks me up when he says it and the person that doesn't usually hear it all the time says something like oh what did he do? or what does he want? People assume that when he says that there is a reason. I love that he doesn't have a clue what they are even talking about. He doesn't say I love you to get what he wants or when he is in trouble that isn't even something that has crossed his mind. I just usually answer with no he just loves me. :) We even have a code for I LOVE YOU. He seldom uses it but he knows it. Someone told me that I should write a book about Rowdy and I really should but can you imagine the hay day that an editor would have with my jumbled thoughts! I would need to hire someone to write my thoughts and make them make sense.

Paisley: She is once again cutting teeth and grouchy. But I am happy to report that she is grouchy due to the teeth not do to the others in the house being grouchy. HA! She is such a funny little girl with such a personality. Oh and she has a new love for hats. Mom made her a new one recently and she loves it. Now if only it wasn't 70 some degrees here in December then we could get some use out of our matching hats...yes, I said matching. (insert huge grin) I think we will look so cute but grouchy...err I mean Kris said mine didn't look good.

I think that is the long and short of it.

PS:This is the last week of school for us till the first of the year! YEHAW!!!!

We are outta school. Was going to be out till after New Years but after a little change we aren't going to be off that long. We are out this week and then will go back for 2 weeks and then be out till after the New Years. Anyways today is the first day and boy have we been lazy. We haven't really done anything not even laundry. It has been nice after trying to stick to a certain schedule and all. I was just thinking about dinner and text Kris to see what time he was going to be off work for sure and he said 7. So now I am not thinking about dinner. He said he would just eat a sandwich. That is fine with me now I just have to figure out what to feed the kids. Pretty sure they wont go for left over corn casserole from last nights dinner so I will have to come up with something. 

I am still washing my hair in baking soda only and I do really like it. It is rather strange that once I put styling products on my hair and don't wash it for a few days my hair gets very heavy feeling. I am not sure what the reasoning behind that is if it is the oil glands still over producing (which takes a few weeks to correct) or if its just the product. Anyways I am not sure that I will go back to shampoo even if this doesn't clear up my psoriasis although that was my original thought. I had a hard time buying shampoo cause some would cause my psoriasis to really flare up. So if nothing else I have something that wont cause my scalp to itch like mad. 

Last night we had our Pastor Appreciation and Thanksgiving Supper and it was a great show of appreciation for our Pastor. A few kids did some speeches and sang a song and then there was others that spoke and also sang. We had Paisley in there the whole time and she ended up going up to the stage and I refused to go and get her in front of everyone. Thankfully Andrew was coming back from singing and he herded her back to us. I then took off to the back to let her roam more freely. It worked for a bit. In saying all that I missed some of the talking and singing. Mrs. Jeffie was the hostess and she did a great job. There are so many pastors out in this world that wont stand up and speak out about different things that aren't Godly and I can tell you that our Pastor does just that. Oh he makes people mad about things but if you sat back and thought you would realize that you probably got mad out of guilt because it is hard to sometimes see a sin in our own lives. I am thankful for our pastor and our Church and for raising our kids right there in that Church learning the Gospel. 

This was the most relaxing Saturday we have had in along time. We got up and I cooked breakfast then we hung out for a bit around the house and I did some cleaning up and then we went out to Mom's for a bit so a guy could look at the truck to see if he wanted to buy it or what. Ending up he didn't but he did tell Kris that if he would do something and it worked then he would suggest a transmission flush but if that didn't then we should think about just scrapping it. So right now we are just praying for guidance on what to do and Kris will take my car to work for now. No big deal to me. I don't go anywhere most days and Mom is retired so if anything she can take me. So then we came home and I made an apple crisp for tomorrow night at Church but I did make a small bowl of it and we took that to Moms for dinner. So we went out there and Kris fished till dark and Mom fed us chili followed by the apple crisp. It was super yummy! So I guess I'll take the big pan to Church! HA! After fishing, eating and helping Mom rearrange her living room we came home and I made corn casserole and bathed Paisley. Speaking of bathing her, its like bathing a wild cat. There was a lot of screaming and clawing when I tried to wash her hair. Anyways she is ready for Church. Tomorrow night is Pastor Appreciation and Thanksgiving Supper. It is usually always a fun evening of picking on the Pastor and usually some tears shed too. Our Pastor is a wonderful man. I love that he doesn't worry about stepping on toes. He leads his flock with what God lays on his heart no matter then topic. Its such a blessing. So I am looking forward to tomorrow night and I am hoping that we can show him once again what a blessing to us he is. 

Well school is out for a week! YEHAW! We only had to take a spelling test today and so we got started on that and Rowdy started spelling words before we could even get the books out and ready. So we are finished and have all next week to work on Thanksgiving stuff and maybe a few crafts. We just finished week 15. I cant believe that we are half way through the school year already. I am so thankful to God that he has led us to the decision to home school and blesses Kris with work so that I don't have to work. I love my babies and being able to stay home. Well today we are going window shopping with Mom and then to eat at Glasgows. I need to start getting around. Mom is not participating in her Church play this year but instead she is decorating a table for the dinner. So she is gathering up stuff and doing a patriotic table today I think we are looking for a center piece for it. Today is day 2 of washing my hair with the baking soda and Apple Cider Vinegar. I have read several sites that say the ACV might make your hair more oily so I may drop that soon. I have pretty oily hair as it is so I don't need more oil. Ok, well today I put 1 cup of water in a condiment bottle and then mixed baking soda in it and took it to the shower with me. I wet my hair and then used the baking soda/water mixture just as I would shampoo and then didn't follow with the Apple Cider Vinegar. I wondered after being shower started if this was smart but ending up I couldn't tell that I hadn't used the rinse. All is well. I would definitely say that my head itches less. So all is well and I will keep doing this till I know this is working or not.
Today we went shopping with Mom and then ate lunch at Glasgows. We had a great day. Started out the day stopping at Perfect Choices and didn't spend much time there cause it was really high. Then we went to Pier 1 Imports and Mom found the things that she was looking for so we headed out to eat lunch. Glasgows was as good as usual and here are a few pictures of Paisley that we took. She was eating a lemon.

It isn't so bad. 

Ok, maybe a bit tangy.

Oh yuck! 

We had a good giggle during lunch needless to say. 

Then we headed to the mall to find Mom a new phone case because she was wanting something that had bling. Well she meanwhile got scammed out of 50 cents from Rowdy so he bought something out of the little vending machines. 

Seriously, I mustache you a question. 

Closing out the day Kris called and the transmission went out in his truck AGAIN. Yes, it happened about 3-4 years ago and it was a pain to get fixed. So at this point I guess he will be driving the car to work. God will work it all out and that we know for sure. 

No poo...the Kari version

No poo! HA! I bet your not expecting after a title like that I will be talking about a bathroom issue not going shampoo free. I have been reading about this and since I have psoriasis and it is rather bothersome especially in the winter then I thought it was worth a try. So today is Day 1. Today I wet my hair in the kitchen sink and then saturated it with 1 cup of water and 1 tbs of baking soda mixed well. Then I wrapped it in a towel and let it sit for about 5 minutes. I then mixed 1 cup of water with 1 tbs of apple cider vinegar. I jumped in the shower and rinsed the baking soda out very well and then I put in the vinegar water. I was expecting some burning during this but I didn't have any. I then rinsed it out and expected my hair to still feel dirty. I was wrong. It is really very clean. I think my hair has more volume(which isn't that great since I have a lot of volume already) even. So far I can say that my scalp isn't any more itchy but not any less but this is day 1.

I named this the Kari version because at some point you go without any styling product. I am not in any way shape or form going to do that cause I don't want to make bozo jealous. I also have not added the coconut oil to the steps and I am not sure that I will since I haven't been using any kind of conditioner in over a year. Plus I don't keep coconut oil on hand.

**Here are the two links that I have read on "No poo"
http://thehairpin.com/2011/04/how-to-quit-shampoo-without-becoming-disgusting/

and

http://www.loving-it-raw.com/no-poo.html

Time is flying and random Kari thoughts.

I cant believe how fast this year has flown by. Next week is Thanksgiving and it has kind of slipped up on me. Funny how that works. I have been thinking about it for a month but I guess felt that I didn't need to really be thinking and then boom here it is. So we are having Thanksgiving at Mom's this year. Last year we did it at Shanna's house and it wasn't the same in which it never will be the same but it can be a new normal. This year Kris is cooking the turkey. He is frying it and then we are having all the fixens. I cant wait. I am making hot rolls and mini pumpkin pie tarts and I think I'll make something else to go with it too. We shall see. I should look at pinterest for something else sweet. I should make Mom a raisin pie. hmmm

Kris has been making and taking his lunch every day. That has been so great for us money wise. I usually prepare his lunch as much as possible and then he finishes it that morning and takes it. That is saving us roughly $40 per week. YAY, for savings. The best part is it was all his idea! Things happen better if they are their ideas. It is just manipulating the idea to make them think of it and then it becomes their great idea. I am getting better at that. 

Well the winter cold is here and the heater is on and my psoriasis is going nuts! I am starting a new shampoo today. We shall see if my head turns into a science experiment and explodes and hair falls out or if the psoriasis goes away. This will save money for us too. I have been really trying to be thrifty. I am now making our own, liquid hand soap, dishwasher soap, laundry soap, window cleaner, surface cleaner, floor cleaners. I even removed red kool aid from the carper the other day without a single problem. I was proud of myself. Meanwhile the cleaning schedule has fell by the way side and you know what? I don't care. If you come in our house and it is a mess and makes you uncomfortable then you need to leave. We live here and thankfully we do it comfortably. My hot spots in the house are bothering me a bit though so I might clean them up a wee bit. Oh and I haven't dusted since August. Yeah, I said August and I grinned while saying it. Go ahead and come over and write your name in it. Next time you come over it might just still be there. Dust isn't my priority. 

Well that is all for now folks! 

Embarrassing Moment

We have all had those moments that are really embarrassing well I have had more than I care to think about but this one I decided to share because well it was rather funny. Kris came home from work and decided that he would go and try to hunt and kill a big one! Anyways so he was getting ready and I was doing laundry with my back towards him. Well someone was coming over and I was expecting them but not maybe right then. So I start the washer and yell at Kris "I will warm ya up when you get home" only to turn around and that someone was standing between us. I am pretty sure Kris' grin was about to bust and I just turned around and resumed washing my laundry plus it gave the red cheeks time to go down. I keep giggling about it and it was truly funny but geesh I was embarrassed. I rarely if ever say things like that and so I guess that is what I get for thinking and then saying it. Kris kissed me goodbye with a HUGE grin on his face and then left me. So that is my embarrassing moment of the day.

Zoned out

Well it didn't occur to me today that it was Friday till about 3pm. What a week. I have been in a daze. I am not sure what is wrong with me but I need to get out of it. I haven't done much around the house, my attention span is the length of a gnat for that matter so is my patience. Anyways it has been a long week but thankfully it is over. Maybe my problem is like when you work out of the house and then two weeks before your vacation you get grumpy and cant stand the place. Maybe I am in that mode because in about 2 weeks we will be done till after the first of the year. YEHAW! Oh well I will carry on but when Thanksgiving is here then school is DONE! I must say I have timed things pretty good. We will be doing a unit test in math this next week and closing out and testing in reading too. Well we have been lax on eating at the table. I know shame on us. It all began when we couldn't hardly get to our table and then it ended up a catch all but now in this house we can use it but haven't been. That is changing and Kris and I are both determined to make the change. So far so good. It is amazing how much easier it is to clean up the kitchen after getting up from the table. Anyways it has helped us with our family devotions too. Changes are happening in the Lemley house. :) We are a work in progress...have been for sometime but we are slow at catching on to things sometime or is it called lazy? Whatever you want to call it we are trying to do better. So today was a rough day in school we did school till 3:30 which is unheard of in this house. Anyway Rowdy was more ornery than normal if you can imagine. Anyways we sit down for devotions and the devotions for tonight is....wait for it....Divine discipline!!! Rowdy audibly sighed. It was quite funny. He did somber up and decide that maybe he did need to be better but he isn't really sure why he has been acting like that but he will pray about it and so far has been. Next week will be better I just know it. Kris is hunting this weekend. So it will be a quite weekend bahahaha. Ok, no really it will just be a regular week day or might as well be. Thankfully the season is just that a season.
P.S Spell check doesn't get me.... :)

Time Change

Well the time changed on Saturday night and boy are we thrown off. I hope that Paisley's sleep pattern works itself out soon. For that matter mine too. I am sleepy by 7:30 and ready for bed and then wide awake at 5:30 but forbid myself to get up and do something in fear that Paisley will wake up and then my day will start that much earlier. If she would keep snoozing for another hour that would be nice then I could my devotions and some other quite time things but that isn't how it works so I lay in bed too. The bad thing is today I wanted a nap. Not a habit that I like to have cause I need stuff done but the sun hasn't been shining today so the nap wouldn't let me go and I caved in. Now I should be doing stuff and I find myself blogging. Oh hum. Maybe tomorrow will be better. We did all of school including a math test so we are right on schedule with everything and I think will be even ahead of schedule so we might start our break a wee bit earlier. Which is fine with me. Meanwhile we are dieting here at this house. I am not sure what the diet is going to be but so far I am counting calories and I am sure Kris is eating whatever he can get a hold of before he gets home. Tonight I think after dinner and the chamber meeting we will go to the park and walk. I am not sure what we will do though maybe just walk. I don't want to set myself up for a failure. Part of me does want to do the couch to 5K but I think that might be a failure for me. I suck at exercise. I don't want to die early though and know I need to do something. Oh if only I had enough money to pay some trainer to yell at me and keep me going. I am hoping that Kris wont let me quit so maybe I can set up a payment plan with him. hehehehahaha. What a great idea! If I start dropping the pounds you better not ask questions. ;)

What a crazy weekend this has been. Friday evening Paisley kicked off the night with several dirty diapers. She acted fine so we all assumed it was something that she ate that didn't sit well with her. Well this went on through the night and so Saturday morning we ran up to the drug store(which prompted a funny conversation with Rowdy which I will tell about later) to see the pharmacists would suggest if I should give her anything or just let it run its course. So we pull into Teasley’s drug store in which I refer to as the drug store en route. Well Rowdy says ok so why is this called a drug store? Aren't drugs bad for you? I then think hmm good point hadn't thought about my referral of it being a “drug store” anyways so I explain that they sell medicines for people to buy in case they are sick like Paisley is. Then I wonder how in the world he knows about drugs per se. Then recall a recent conversation with another child about it being a drug free week at school. Boy, I am glad that he doesn't know the extent of what drugs are. I was a wee bit worried for a bit because he is 7. There is plenty of things that I can keep hidden from him for a bit longer and I will. I know that kids need to know right and wrong about drugs, sex and etc but not at 7. It makes me thankful that he isn't in PS and having to be exposed to all the above. Anyways so we go into Teasley’s and talk to the pharmacists and she didn't advise giving her anything yet but if not better then go to Dr on Monday. Well yesterday we had plans to go to the corn maze taking both kids. Ending up I was just going to cancel so that we could keep her in but Mom offered to watch her so that it could just be Rowdy, Kris and I. I am so glad that we did that and I think it was very good one on one attention for Rowdy. So we left at 1 and headed out to the Right Choice Corn Maze which is a great family place. We went several years ago and had a great time and I would say even more fun this year. They have added several more games and fun for the kids. We ended up on a 30 minute hay ride which was a wee bit long for the little ones that were with us but it sure satisfied my hay ride yearnings! HA! Well last night we had another very restless night and started running a fever so this morning we didn't go to Church. I am glad because we have changed probably 20 diapers since we got up at 8. Poor child can hardly walk because the rash is so bad. I have tried rash cream and am now using cornstarch too on her. So tomorrow we shall go visit the Dr and get this stuff nipped in the bud…or is it butt? Heehee. Today has been a very long day with lots of diaper changing, baby holding, consoling and a headache for Momma. I have been drinking a lot of Dr Pepper and well it hasn't helped. So I have moved on to water in hopes it will kick in soon. Meanwhile is it bed time yet? Well I think it is almost nap time once again so I better get this published and get ready for a new diaper and sleepy baby. Catch yall later! 

What a day yesterday was. We caught Rowdy in two lies. The first one was if he used his pocket knife on the trampoline. Ending up he did use it. He has been carrying a knife for sometime and has been told not to use it unless its needed to cut something in which until yesterday he had been using it for just that. Well I guess yesterday he got a little carried away with it and then proceeded to jump and then it ripped even more. So now it isnt usable and the knife has been taken away for a long time. So he lied to us about doing it when asked if he did. Well then him and Kris went fishing and afterwards he was told that he needed to make sure Mimi's shop was locked up. He said it was and went out like 3 times to check. Well ending up it wasnt locked at all. Thankfully Kris went out to check it. So when we got home he got a spanking and was sent to bed at 7:30. He was not happy about going to bed that early and well this morning I am not either cause well he got up with me. I like my morning times to be nice and quite. Oh well the day has started. I guess getting up early is beneficial for me cause I have gotten a lot of things done. Including tomorrow's breakfast whipped up and ready to just be cooked. GO ME! I dont really want to get up this early anymore. I feel like I spent my work force years doing just that I dont want to do it anymore so I wont! HA! Ok, only if the baby wakes up and I have to. Last week we had fall break from AWANA and although it was nice having off I did miss it. I do like my class and teaching those kiddos. So tonight we go back and I am looking forward to it. So I think I better get off and gather the rest of the AWANA stuff up and get the baby bathed and ready for Church.

Dad and Memories

Well we had the Auction yesterday to sell Dad's tools and farm equipment that Mom has no use for. There was a large crowd and over 300 bidders. The best part of it was how much support Mom had. She had several close friends come out to be there for her during the Auction. It was a tough day watching Dad's things switch hands and drive off. In the end it needed done so now she can retire! YEHAW! I am glad that she is going to retire. She was off again today so that people could come and get their stuff since some bought more than they thought they would. So she joined us for lunch. It wasn't much but I sure enjoyed having her over for lunch. I am really looking forward to Christmas break now cause we can do some baking together and maybe some craft projects too. We are very thankful for how over the last year and a half the Lord has provided and got everything lined out for this very result of her retiring. I nearly forgot! I was going to talk about a few things that were in the Auction. One being this stool thing that I often played "airplane" on. It was the landing strip for my belly when I was about Rowdy's age or maybe even younger. It had been used a good many years in the shop. I had forgotten about it till things were getting drug out into the drive way in preparation for the sale. Yes, I sat on it no I didn't "land" on it though. LOL!!! That would have been a sight! Dad's truck also sold. They bought the truck brand new in 2001 and it was always Dad's truck. I couldn't even ride in the silly truck without crying like a baby. It was hard to watch it go but as I sat on the porch the memories flooded me of right after Rowdy was born Dad came down while I was still on leave and we went to Lincoln to Burger Land to eat lunch. So we ate lunch and Dad asked if I needed to head home then. I said No, I had been cooped up so no big deal for me to be out longer. It was a good relief for baby blues. So we proceeded down a dirt road which turned to another dirt road and so on and so forth. Before I know it we are bouncing down what appears to be a creek. Yup, a dried up creek bed! It was so much fun! We laughed and laughed and I couldn't have found the way outta there to save my life since I think North is always in front of me! HA! Dad however was able to find our way out of there with just a few turns in the right direction. After that day we laughed saying that we would never be able to find that creek bed again. We didn't look for it but I'd give anything to go with him and look for it with Rowdy and Paisley in the truck with us. I hope that whomever bought the truck creates some great memories with their daughter like Dad did. Well now that I am crying I guess I'll go mop the tears and start dinner.

Baking and relaxing

I find that if I get in the kitchen and make something like bread it is just so relaxing. Today I decided when Paisley went down for a nap that I would go in and make some French Bread which is to be used for tomorrow nights dinner (pizza bread). I hadn't made french bread before figured it was something lengthy I guess. Anyways it was easy peasy. I will definitely be going back to this recipe. I made the French Bread in my Grandma's bowl. It isn't really her bowl but she made bread in one similar so I am calling this one her bowl. It makes me smile. Here is a picture of the bowl. 

So after mixing, kneading, letting rise, I divide the dough in half and start to shape and guess who wakes up. Yep, my sweet baby. So the first loaf is pretty and nicely shaped but the other was haphazardly rolled out, rolled up and thrown on the sheet to rise due to screaming Paisley. So here in the picture of the bread.

 I must say it tastes really good. I am wishing I had some tomato's so that I could make bruschetta. YUM! It will make GREAT pizza bread tomorrow night though so I am excited for that.

This and That

Well still been trying to keep the house clean which is useless with a year old that acts like a paper shredder. I promise that if you need something to not be readable or just be useless just go ahead and give it to Paisley. I promise if she doesnt eat it then I promise you wont recognize it. She is climbing the walls. No, really just all cabinets, tables, chairs and anything else that is off the ground. She isnt talking still but Rowdy was a late talker to and well as of today he has very few quite moments. I guess they get that from me. :) I haven't noticed that I have lost any though either. Well Kris shot a deer last night. They had a special rifle hunt that you could kill a doe in a 5 day period. I am relieved to have some meat. I have been pretty worried about the winter months. I am hoping it isn't to bad and Kris has to go without work for any length of time. I always worry about that during the winter with a husband in construction. Now we will at least have meat to eat and the things that I canned over the summer. So as long as we make enough money to pay the bills we will be good. God will take care of us that I know for sure. Well I made round 2 of soap. The first soap left Kris' pants smelling like they werent clean. So I grated up some Felsnaptha bar soap and so far so good. I am curious how long one batch uses which was 1 bar soap grated, 1 cup washing soda, 1/2 cup borax 1 cup purex crystals. Pretty cheap detergent. So back to my cleaning adventures. I am really NOT a clean freak but I dont want my house a disaster if someone unexpected comes over so I have been trying to keep things were you can walk! HA! So after many different tasks lists and this and that they have all been a FAIL! So I am not trying the Flylady. She says we need hugs...bahahaha. Anyways day one step one was shine your sink. WHAT? It is suppose to make you smile. I cant say that I smile over it but I have thought hmm that looks nice. Day 2 was get dressed to lace up shoes. FAIL! I hate shoes! I am feeling very Oscar the Grouch like with the FlyLady but I am plugging along. I do wish her posts were more cut and dry. I have read Day 3 which is todays like 5 times and well I still dont get it. I am rather slow so that must be the issue. I think I'll try to read it later again after the morning fog has lifted. So my cleaning journey continues. Stay tuned cause I am sure something exciting will happen along the way! HA! Ok, maybe not exciting to you but stay tuned anyways....please!

WOW!!! These months are flying by! I think it turned October and hello winter was here! It got cold fast. I was unprepared. It has been nice the last few days and the Lord blessed us with some much needed run off rain over the past few days about 4 inches total. That was nice. Our area was so dry over the Summer it was scary. I am very thankful that we aren't on a well anymore. Well we are on a roll with school this is the start of our 11th week. I must say I am enjoying it. I didn't at the beginning of this year it was hectic. Its very hard to get in the swing of things and get the feel of all the new curriculum. We made it though and we are plugging along. I did learn this year that Rowdy is much more of a visual learner than I had thought. I knew he was but not to the extent that he is. After a lot of research and talking with others we are doing good. I don't get how he solves the problems in his head like he does. He breaks things down by speaking of how he is doing it in his head and he gets the answer right every time. I just say ok yep that's right and go on. lol I am trying really hard not to say HUH? WHAT? That doesn't make sense? Paisley is staying entertained now by Sesame Street while we do school so its nice that she is not bothering us when we need to work on certain things. Well that's all I have for now. Talk to ya later! 

8 Years

Today Kris and I have been married 8 years! It hasnt all been roses but it has been worth it. We went to Eureka by ourselves over the weekend and I had some major deja vu feelings. Last time we went alone was on our honeymoon and I believe that we left on Thursday after we had gotten married and Wednesday we had taken a pregnancy test and found out that we were pregnant. Boy oh Boy was I sick. We didnt do much on our honeymoon. All I really remember was my head hanging in the toilet and we ate at a 24 hour restaurant after we had watched one of the shows and I had oatmeal and Kris had a HUGE cinnamon roll and well I didnt barf till after we left the restaurant. Anyways we got to Eureka and I felt like barfing this weekend. I looked at Kris and said deja vu. He laughed and said only the road right? I said well near as I know! Anyways we went to a few flea markets and my stomach settled and then we went downtown to wander the streets. It took 5 passes down the streets to find a place to park but we found one a block off the main drag and away we went. Kris right off the bat bought a wallet for $5. He was so proud that he bought a leather wallet for $5. So we wondered around and got a headache from all the hippie smells...incense and crap wafting out of the places. We didnt buy much. Not much that impressed us besides the wallet (stay tuned for that). Anyways we were down there a couple of hours and decided that we arent really great shoppers. So we left Eureka and decided to go the other way out of Eureka. Dont ask me the road I havent a clue I will say that it was steep and also very curvy. I do much better when I have something to drink while we are on a curvy road and somehow we ended up leaving town without a drink. Thankfully we came up on the dam store and we stopped and got a drink there. Then we decided to go on down the Beaver Dam and look. Kris wants to go camping there but I remember riding on a tube behind a pontoon through there and there was alligator gar all the way around me. UGH! I will not camp around there. Anyways so we left and made our way into Rogers and decided to eat at our favorite restaurant which is Copelands. But first at Inspiration point Kris decided to switch wallets. Well NONE of the cards and such fit in the wallet. He finally was able to stretch it a bit and get them in. I laughed and laughed over his good deal. I sang to Kris on the way home in my best Vince Gill voice (I plugged my nose) he thought I had gone off the deep end and he said that I didnt sound anything like Vince. Anyways after eating we went to Cabela's but wasnt in there long cause I threatened to trip the man walking around using the bird call thing. Then we headed out to get the kids. I was happy to see them and they were happy to see us. All in all it was a great day and we enjoyed our time together! Happy Anniversary to us!

I nearly forgot that I was a blogger now! HA! I haven't had the time to blog and well actually just hadn't thought much about it. I guess the new wore off! OK, so lets see what has happened around here. School that is what has been going on. Boy is 2nd grade hard! ha Well OK English is hard for Rowdy and we started regrouping(called carrying when we were in school) That has him stumped a bit but we are just practice practice practicing. We are getting there and I think that he will just get better and better at it. Paisley has a new found love for Sesame Street. Oh boy does she ever get so excited about it. So we have said forget the busy boxes lets watch Sesame Street on repeat for the time needed while we do school. Working well so far. The last time I wrote on here I think I wrote about cleaning. Well I have been doing it here and there. I am not so much on a schedule. I think so far I am a clean daily as far as surface clean but then do the major cleaning (bathrooms, deep cleaning of rooms) on Friday's. I am trying my best to stay un-cluttered but my pack rat tendencies get me down and I say forget it for a few days. Oh well. I did find out that Kris does like to come home to a clean house. So that is some motivation. Today we are doing Science project with Tarah and boys then they are staying for dinner. Just sloppy Joe's and curly fries so nothing fancy here. Well this weekend is Kris and I 8th wedding anniversary. Diane is going to watch the kids for us and we are just going to hang out and be together. I don't know what all we will do. Maybe drive to Eureka and walk to downtown area. I am pretty excited to have a full day of no children and adult conversation. I am sure the kids will be worked into the convo at some point though! We are parents after all but it will be nice to be kid free. Well I have work to do. Was suppose to make scones today and well I haven't. I guess I better go get with it.

Some day's you just wake up and think am I really suppose to be doing this? Ugh, it has been one of those day's. I have questioned my ability on doing everything. Am I a good wife? Mother? Teacher? It has just been a rough day. I don't know what the deal is besides just a moment that I am going through. Anyways I feel like I cant do anything right mostly with Rowdy's school. His attitude has been bad and my spanking him has not done any good. I have resorted to taking things away like games, TV and etc. I am not sure that is even working. Today we butted heads all day and every day by the time Kris gets home I have had a terrible headache and have been on edge. I am not sure what is wrong. My patience is really low and I have no tolerance for things that don't usually bother me. I just keep praying for answers and I know that God will work everything out. I know that I want to home school Rowdy and that this is what is best for us but boy is it rough at times. I don't remember having this issue last year but maybe I did but due to just having Paisley I wrote it off? I just don't know. Hopefully Monday is better all the way around with attitude and school work getting done. Today I just kind of gave up and said forget it. That is not what I need to do but I had to step away from the situation and think. I guess I am still thinking.....just at a loss. Any prayers would be greatly appreciated.

I cooked mushroom burgers for dinner tonight with mashed taters. I have yet to tell Kris what its called but he LIKED it! I must rename this meal so he doesn't change his mind. I had it in my head to tell him to suck it up and eat but HA! He showed me!!!!! :) Easy Peasy dinner too.
1lb ground beef made into patties and fried
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 can of water
let simmer till ready to serve. I didn't have more than one can of cream of mushroom and was afraid that there wouldn't be enough gravy so I just added a little more water and flour and stirred it up.

Score for me!!!! :)

Yesterday was Labor Day and I tried not to labor to much but the washing machine stopped working and so I had to squeeze wet laundry, haul one bowl of water out at a time, then we had to heave it out of the little room that it is in sitting sideways of all things. ugh. We did get it out and we figured out what it wrong with it so now to get the part and fix it. Kris would rather just pay someone to come in and fix it because he doesn't think that this will fix it but I am just sure it will. :D Meanwhile my house is a disaster zone! It was so nice and clean till yesterday when the washing machine went kaput and I had to drag everything off the shelf and put it all over the dining and kitchen areas. THEN I went to pick up the drain pipe off the floor and ending up the thing came off the back of the washer and the remaining 3-4 inches drained out on my kitchen/dining/bedroom floor. AHHHHH, what a mess that was. Oh well as of on Thursday it will be fixed and I did vacuum out the dryer and so maybe it will work better to and not take three 30 minute cycles to dry one load. Thankfully I had most of the laundry done on Friday so we don't have much just a few daily changes and such so I can run to Mom's for that. So Saturday we went to the Clothes Line Fair. We being Mom, Rowdy, Paisley and myself. It wasn't much and really I think it was a waste of the $5 parking but we went. We left there and went to the Daisies and Olives Flea Market which is a really good flea but the one a couple of doors down is the one that I found a few jars at. I was excited. I need to go back and buy some of the zinc lids. They had a whole box of them for .50 for the in bad shape one and 1.00 for the good ones. Flea Markets mostly don't have AC so it was a bugger in them especially with a little girl that doesn't handle heat so well. I think Flea Markets are best in the winter for that reason! Good thing to do on a cold day. Not sure they heat them though either. Sunday we went to Church and then to the Taylor's house to hang out for the afternoon. It was a good afternoon. We had a great time with them as usual and Robyn cooked a very yummy lunch of Fajitas. I wish I could cook half as good as she does. I am not a bad cook but I don't go out on a limb to much but I need to get better at that and tell Kris to suck it up. heehee In saying that I probably wont cause much to his dismay he is spoiled rotten but then again so am I but I know it! :) Today we started our 5th week of school which is going swell. I have no complaints yet except Rowdy's complaints but I just ignore those and tell him to get to work. We have had some rough days but for the most part it has been good. I am shocked that we are in our 5th week cause it seems like last week we started. I do plan to take from Thanksgiving till the first of the year off. I think. We might do a few things but nothing much except baking. I plan to do all that kind of fun stuff. :) Maybe some craft stuff. I need to go through my pinned stuff on pinterest and print or write down what all I plan to do during the break so that I can make sure we have all the supplies. I better wait till I get my house righted again hopefully by Friday when the washer is fixed and shoved back into its tiny spot. Well I am off to peel apples.

AHHHH, my house is spotless!!! Well ok maybe not spotless but hey its better than it was! If someone came in with a white glove to test the place out I'd still probably throw them out for being a pain but I'd still be happy with myself for all that is accomplished. The kitchen was tackled today and boy was the fridge the pits! I had plenty of science projects who doesn't? I mean come on people it happens to the best of us...not saying I am the best. I am way down low on that board. Probably very bottom but you know I have fridge to let stuff mold in so that's an upside lol. Anyways it is all clean and I am feeling very accomplished. Now what can I cook for dinner to make the whole place a mess? I usually use every pan in the place anyways :)
Well its Labor Day weekend this weekend and I must say that we don't have a lot of plans. Tomorrow I think Mom and I will go to the Clothes Line fair. Funny thing we lived down in Summers for 7 years and I went to that once lived here a year and already going to it. lol Anyways we decided that if we got down there and it was raining then we would just hit Daisies and Olives. Which is one of my MOST favorite flea market to hit! :) Then Sunday is of course Church. Monday is the actual holiday and near as I know there is nothing in the works for us to do but that can change pretty fast. We may put the bed in our room and then our old bed into the kids room. We will just have to see. It will be nice having a weekend with the hubs. He has been working on Saturday's and will be this weekend to but with Monday off it will be an actual weekend! Yay us!!! :) Happy Weekend Ya'll!!!!

Well we are one Day 7 of Fall/Spring Cleaning. So far I have realized I don't have near enough stuff to be very organized as I need to be. I have decided that I should buy something once per week in the tote/drawer organizing department. I probably will have them running out my ears then! HA I am finding it rather daunting to go back into each room daily and right it again and I fear that will be my down fall. I am trying to keep things up and hoping that it just comes routine. I really like to have a clean house and have it presentable very quickly. It is really tricky to do this with one of these around..

Oh well it will be what it will be messy house and all. I do enjoy spending my days with my kiddos and so I'll take that any day over cleaning! :) 

Well Paisley has discovered a few PBS shows that she likes to watch so that has eased some of our schooling chaos. That is a big plus! I can just set her up in front of the TV in her chair and turn on the TV and she is good to go for about 2 minutes! HA! Two minutes is two minutes in the time of peace people! I'll take all I can get. It'll just be 2 minutes at a time. 

Rowdy still doesn't like "Chinese" (English) he really thinks it is just awful and makes sure that he tells me daily. We just keep plugging along and I know that one day it will all click but hopefully it doesn't take him as long as it is me. Poor child! Meanwhile we bought a paint by number thing for "Art" this year and Rowdy started it Tuesday and I thought he would do a little and then be done and finish the rest some other time. WRONG! He did the whole thing that night but he got bored and well just painted. So he brings this masterpiece to me and I said "what is it?" He replied that it was the wolf like on the cover of the box. I said "OH, Well did you follow the numbers and paint by the numbers? His reply "Nope, I got tired of it and just painted. Pretty huh?" My Reply "Yep, if you use your imagination" His reply "Fine I'll go fix it" (begrudging tone). A few minutes later he comes back and it is a bit more wolf like especially if the wolf has blue nostrils. :) Art is going SWELL!!!!! :) 

On that note I am outta here!!! 

Today I realized that this is our 4th week of school! YEHAW! We are right on track and hopefully a bit ahead in some areas. I really like to home school and feel that it is perfect for our family. I don't think that it is for everyone but definitely for us. Today Rowdy had a dentist appointment so we had to make sure all chores and school was done before 1 so that we could go get gas, go get Kris' payroll check, stop off and see Diane and then head to the dentist office and be there by 3. We made it! After 40 minutes of teeth cleaning, little boy and girl squirming, xrays taken we have a cavity. One little ole cavity and 4 back molars coming in pretty much all at the same time. Anyways so we schedule the filling and the next 6 month cleaning for BOTH kids this time. March will be Paisley's first visit and well that should be interesting. We go to leave and no more than walk out the door and Rowdy's nose starts gushing blood. Very strange! So 6 napkins later we finally get enough pressure on it for it to quit. This is the first nose bleed that he has ever had and I am not really sure what could have caused it. So I guess later this week we will be going back to Fayetteville for our filling. Which by the way now fillings are available in a variety of colors. WHAT?? Colors? Really? Isn't that almost condoning kids getting cavities?? Very strange to me. 

Well last week Tarah and I started a deep cleaning schedule to get our houses in order and organized then get in a regular schedule of cleaning. So far so good. Today was day 4 which was clean the living room. Our living room wasn't so bad since we don't have many cubby holes in there. I really have a pack rat problem. Not really hoarding but lots of junk drawers! HA! Anyways last Wednesday was the first day and it was tackle the P's rooms (Parker and Paisley) those 2 rooms were EASY compared to the boys rooms which was on Thursday. Then Friday was sort laundry for all kids. Neither one of us had done that for the kids and so we really needed to get that done. Well its done but I am ashamed to say that I just finished today! I worked all day on Friday on Rowdys and then finished it on Saturday morning and then DIDN'T move to Paisley's room. So today I sorted and hung up Paisley's laundry. Now to get it put away. Tomorrow is the start of Master bedroom cleaning. AHHHHH, the dresser is a MESS! That's the dreaded part. It is the "hot spot" in our room so it catches everything! Oh well it will be much better when the whole house is done and maintained! Well I just realized that I need to go buy a tote and a few magic bags for clothes so I can get those things stowed away. Off to the dollar general store I go! :) 

Motherly Instincts

Motherly instincts...you know the feeling you get when your child is doing something that they shouldnt be and so you call them out even if they are clear in another room. Well I have those! LOL I have used them regularly especially with a sleep walker living in the house. They are pretty handy but they confuse Kris something fierce. He doesnt get it. Well last night I really got him. I had a little help last night but I didnt disclose that to him. :) Last night we laid down in bed and we laid there about 15 minutes and I yelled at Rowdy "Rowdy, stop reading your book!" Rowdy said "Uhhhh Ok Momma" Well I proceeded to go to sleep and it was quit for a bit and Kris said "How did you know that he was reading his book?" I replied "Mothers instincts" He said "Super Duper Scary" I said "Be careful what you do" He said "Glad your not my Mom" HAHAHAHAHA So really I didnt have an instinct. I just heard the swish of the paper turning and I heard it several times before I said something but I'm not going to reveal this to Kris. Im not sure if he slept well after that but I sure slept good and probably had a big grin on my face cause it was pretty funny! :) 

Do you have a funny story of motherly instinct??? Even a fooled them good one like mine? :) 

Been sick what feels like all week. Not feeling bad really but coughing here and there and chest hurting at night. Last night though ugh didn't feel well all night. Got home from AWANA and went to sleep and tossed, coughed, turned, coughed, tossed, coughed well you get it. Finally fell asleep and woke up later and really needed to go to the bathroom. Stretched and thought that was a good hard sleep. Came out of the bathroom and looked at the alarm clock and it was 11:06. I had probably only slept 20-30 minutes. TOPS! Ugh, I hate those kinds of nights. Needless to say I did try to carry on about my day as normal even though I really wanted to curl up and sleep aka cough. So I dug into Rowdy's room. I really needed a shovel. Oh my that room was a pit. I worked on it while he did some school stuff cause well if he had been in there the whole time then we would had to have kept every little thing broke or not. Anyways it is much better now but not finished. I forgot we had a tote full of books in his closet and so I bought a book shelf at Wal-Mart so tomorrow I have to work on getting that put together and the books on it. Then I tackle Mount Laundry. Happy Friday to me! Maybe I will get my date night this weekend. So far this week Kris has worked every night except Tuesday night and we think he will be working all day on Saturday so tomorrow night is my only hope for a date night. :) We need a date night with no kids. Someday soon hopefully! :)

Dad

I woke in the night crying last night. Not sure what the dream was about really just that Dad was in it. That always starts my day off teary. He is then on my mind the whole day more than usual. Typical days I think about him and wonder what he would have done or said or what silly saying he had to go with what event is going on in our life. I most of all wish that he could have met Paisley. He loved Rowdy so much and I just know that he would have loved her too. He really got a kick out of Rowdy and his shenanigans and would have really loved some of the things that Rowdy has said or done since Dad passed. Sometimes it is so hard not to have him here. I know that it is hard for me and so I cant imagine what my Mom faces daily. I know just last night she said that she missed something in particular so much and she said well I cant really pin point one thing I miss it all. Makes me sad for her. She is doing so well when most people would have thought about giving up she is pushing on and making the best of things cause she knows one day she will be with him again.  In the 6 short years that Rowdy knew Dad he sure learned a lot or maybe it runs in the family but I'm leaning towards the first. He says something on occasion and I think I wonder when he heard Dad say that? It will sounds just like what Dad would say. Odd how you know that Heaven is there and you know its better than this place we are at and we long to be in Heaven so that all pain is erased and we will forever praise our Father. But when someone so near you gets there first your anticipation increases and you really long to be there to just so you can be together again. Someday we will all be together again to fall on our knees and worship or Lord and Savior.

Sorry this is run on and jumbly. Hard to type while crying.

First Birthday Party...finally

I  forgot to publish this on Saturday....so keep in mind it was written then. Well we finally got to celebrate Paisley's First Birthday today. It was almost a month late but hey she didnt have a clue. She had a great time I think. She didnt really say lol but you know. I think she was more curious why everyone was standing around watching her so close. Robyn did a great job with the cakes and even surprised us with a mini personal cake for Paisley. The cakes and cake pops not only looked great but they tasted great too. My family didnt know about cake pops for the most part so it was a new thing and I think everyone liked them. Paisley didnt want to just dig in she did grab the lady bugs off her cake and pound them  together and on the cake a little and then eventually pulled the cake off the plate. Aunt Duh cleaned her up while the other cake was being served and I was nuking the ice cream (note to self: put ice cream out a bit before you need it). By the time she was cleaned up it was pretty much time for the PRESENTS!!!!

Sleep Walker

Well for the last 2 plus years Rowdy has been a sleep walker. We generally just make sure the chains are on the doors and when we hear him we get up chase him down and make him go back to bed after we get him woke up. We are pretty used to it and it mainly happens when there is a change in our life or so we thought. Moving really stepped up the sleep walking and then Kris being gone and him sleeping with me while he was gone then when Kris came home he was booted to his own bed. Anyways sleep walking has slowed tremendously when we discovered that as a child my Dad would sleep walk and would end up that he needed to pee and I guess that causes them to sleep walk. In which case Rowdy did pee once when sleep walking cause it was all over my bathroom floor. UGH, boys are gross! So the sleep walking has slowed down to an occasional thing mostly when we forget to tell him to pee before bed LIKE last night. Anyways about an hour after going to bed I feel him walking around the house don't ask cause I don't understand it either but the kid wasn't making a noise but I knew he was up. Anyways I tell Kris to get up I'm not sure why I did that nor why he listened. Next thing I hear is "Boy, where are your clothes?" no reply (which is normal) "Rowdy, are you just going to sleep naked?" again no reply. "Rowdy at least get your underwear on". Then Kris crawls in bed and says "his underwear are on but they are on backwards and going up his crack and I don't care". I replied "I don't care either". So this morning Rowdy is wrestling in bed with Paisley and his cheeks are showing and apparently he felt a draft and jumped out of bed to change. So a bit later he comes in and I asked him about his undies and he says they are to small. HA! I also asked him about sleep walking and of course he said "NUH UHH, I didn't sleep walk". Needless to say the crazy boy keeps me hopping at night and I'm thankful for that mother instinct that he is on the move that wakes me up during the night. So moving along to school. Today in English we learned about apostrophe. Well Rowdy couldn't say it so I made him say it 100 times so that I could laugh at him. I'm just that kind of Mom people. So he finally said it correctly (bummer for me) so I was glad that he can say it now so now I'm trying to find another word that he cant say. LOL Anyways the lesson was contraction words. So they gave him the words like He is, She is,  He will. So on He will he said He'll but the apostrophe was a little long so it was Helll. So I said no you wrote helll not he'll. He pipes up and says oh yep that's where you will go if you die without Jesus in our heart and I said yes. I didn't explain that there was an extra L in there. Another time and another place that will probably haunt me! We ended the day with my nieces birthday. She turned 14 today and started school also today. Happy Birthday to her, huh? I think she had a good day all in all. I mostly got her presents that her Mom hopefully wont wear so maybe I will see her in it. Ronda is to old for it anyways. Hey, I haven't told her about this blog. Ill wait a few weeks now to tell her! HA! Well I'm closing out for the day! Happy Monday ya'll!!!!!

Well yesterday we went to the Benton County Fair in Bentonville. It was just not the same as growing up. :( For one thing they moved the fair several years ago out of town onto a new much larger area. It used to be on what was only about a city block maybe a couple of blocks. Anyways it just isn't the same. I guess the agriculture part of this area is just shrinking. Growing up there used to be 10 animal barns (there abouts) and then several barns that held crafts, cooking, and then the freebie booths, politics, business booths. Now there is one building that houses all those and it wasn't even full. I was greatly disappointed at how much it has changed but Rowdy thought it was pretty great! So now to focus on my kids and their reactions. They were much grander than mine! lol So we enter the animal barn and Paisley takes a look at a cow and proceeds to grunt and lunge forwards in the stroller moving the stroller. She pretty much did that the whole time during the animal barn even when she had a close encounter with a pig. I didn't get the camera out fast enough but she did scare the pig off with her grunts and lunges. LOL! Rowdy was able to pet two sheep while we were there and he thought that was pretty cool. We left the animal barn and headed towards the craft building. In passing by the fair rides I notice that there isn't very many there and not a midway to be seen. Anyways we went into the craft building and the Benton County Sheriffs Department is doing a free finger printing and picture for all the kids. So we did that which took about 30 minutes cause they were as organized as a soup sandwich. After looking at all the ribbons that Kyleigh (Jenn's daughter) won we left the fair and went to eat some yummy lunch at Colton's the best part being that the kids ate FREE!!!! That's always good! We came home afterwards and worked on a little bit of school so we aren't behind and then watched the rain and hail come down. Praise the Lord for the rain. We really needed it. It has been a super dry summer.
Well today I have been working on the house and looking into vehicles. We are cleaning house and getting ready for Paisley's birthday party. Its her first Birthday which was actually July 20th but Kris was out of town and couldn't be here so we postponed it. Tomorrow is the day though and I am looking forward to it. I think my Mom has bought her a birthday present every week since her birthday. lol She is funny! Well I am off to cook dinner. We are having beef chimi's. New recipe so we shall see if my family likes it.

Hey Friends! Well we have started our 2nd week of school and so far so good. We have fully immersed ourselves in learning and its not so bad. :) On Friday during school Rowdy pointed to the English workbook and said I don't like that book at all. I said what book and he said that Chinese (in a disgusted voice). I cracked up laughing and replied its English get over it! HA! Anyways we are getting through it and it isn't so bad..I don't think. I haven't asked his opinion since though lol. This is our 2nd year of homeschooling and last year we did the following subjects: Reading, Phonics, and Math. This year we are doing the following subjects: Reading, Writing, English, Phonics, Spelling, Math and Science. We took on a lot this year but its all stuff that we need and I have no doubt that Rowdy can handle it. We do take several breaks cause there is a lot of writing between reading, writing and spelling. Paisley is doing good and we are getting somewhat into a routine with school. Mainly the routine is Rowdy does school, I teach school and Paisley destroys the house. So after school is out we have to clean up whatever she may have gotten in. Mostly anything she can reach which is everything! Tomorrow is our AWANA kick off. Kris and I are leaders again this year for the 3rd and 4th grade TNT. I am looking forward to teaching the kids this year. I have a lot of fun with those kids. This year should be much better since Kris should be able to go with us more. Well it has been fairly cool around here and it sure has made me want it to be fall and get my baking on! Today I made cinnamon rolls. WOW! They were good. I have made several kinds of cinnamon rolls and most of them having what seems like a ton of steps. Well I made this one today and it was fairly easy and I think I will stop my search. This recipe makes super fluffy rolls. I'll have to post the recipe out here soon. Then I will at least be able to find it again when I decide to make more! HA! Till tomorrow!

It is finally Friday! We started school this morning and this little angel was to my right. (Yes, she still has bed head and we had already discarded our clothes!)

This little angel was to my left. 

Things were going so well on this last day of our first week. Paisley was entertained and happy as a lark just coloring, playing with some toys and Rowdy was rolling through school. I then look to my right and see this.....

BUUUURP.......................................................followed by this.

I'm full and sleepy now!


Have a great weekend folks!

The Dr. is in...um ok maybe it is the nurse.

What is worse than a sick baby? A sick hubby! Today Kris felt so bad that he went to the Dr. Yeah, it was amazing. lol In our 8 years of marriage and I don't know how many threats later he went to the Dr because he felt awful! So one Dr visit, one pharmacy visit later and he is on the road to recovery. He was borderline dehydrated and has the beginning stages of bronchitis. Hopefully after some much needed rest today he is ready to get back to the grind tomorrow. He recently switched jobs so that he can be home more after being gone for 3 weeks and so far we haven't had a weekend together due to him working but I am not complaining since he is back and we get to at least have each evening. He is a pretty good patient all in all. I think he ignores my nagging but does that stop me? NOPE! I just say drink your water and take your medicine and then say "I love you" with a sweet sweet voice. heehee I did make a small shopping trip out to Silcox in Gentry after dropping Kris off at the Dr. I haven't been there in years! They had a ton of great stuff. I need to go back and take my wallet and maybe find a couple of Christmas presents. Yep, Christmas has been on my mind. Mainly the baking. I think it is due to the tad break in weather. I mean it has only been in the 90's this week not 100's that's quite nice! HA! Anyways I am ready to start baking and have even been laying back some stock in sugar and flour so I can do things in case money runs thin. Our first week of school is almost over and I must say I haven't figured out what to do with Paisley. I'm seriously debating overalls each day and a robe hook in a closet???? No, seriously I know it takes time cause we had no routine cause I'm just that swell of a Mom and now we are in need of a routine. I'm working on that. I'm sure we will get the kinks worked out each week right in time for the weekend and the routine to be blown to smithereens each weekend. LOL!

Well I'm off for the night sorry about the typos, lack of punctuation and grammar. My editor is MIA and I really don't want to think about all that junk! :) Happy reading! PS I have no editor! :)

Busy boxes, sensory bottles, oh my

So today was day two of school. Yea, we skipped yesterday. I babysat a friends children while she did a few things, then headed to eat lunch with Kris then off to the grocery store and by the time we got back home I said EH, there is always tomorrow?? Anyways as you seen above day one of schooling with toddler was an enormous headache. Today well it didn't get much better. Although she didn't scream the whole time she did want in my lap to help. SOOOO tonight I buckled down and thought I need some baby entertainment. Most busy box activities that I find via pinterest are for 2 year old not 1 year old. I made a few sensory bottles, took a wipe case (I get one with every box of wipes I buy at Sam's) and put handkerchief's tied together in it cause whats more fun than emptying a wipe case! Tonight I have made a pretty good dent in my to do list of keep baby entertained. So tomorrow hopefully we have a bit better of a school day. Now to choose what she gets tomorrow in her busy box. Boy, I hope she is as excited as I am! HA! A funny from earlier today: Around lunch time Rowdy decided that he would make him and Paisley a PB sandwich. Well when he started making the sandwich Paisley started getting very impatient and squealing. I hear Rowdy mutter under his breath "Paisley, your about as patient as me and Dad" HAHAHA So true! I laughed and thought I wonder how many times I have said that to him? Anyway I guess he made a pretty good PB sandwich cause there wasn't a crumb left after her. This pretty much rounds out our entire day in the Lemley household. Till tomorrow folks!