Quick Takes Friday - Haircut Edition

Okay, so all my quick takes today aren't going to be about haircuts...but the girls and I did get haircuts today, and I thought I'd share some before and after pictures of the girls (I don't like having my picture taken, thus I am exempt...)

1. Our haircuts on Monday went well...we went to a friend of mine from church. She has a little girl in between Eva and Charlotte's ages, a little boy who is younger than Charlotte, and is expecting her third. Eva got her hair cut first so she could go play with her friend. The older girls kept asking questions like "Can we play with play-doh?" which of course, was a no...but they had a ton of fun. Charlotte joined them after her haircut, too. I was amazed that my friend's little boy slept through it all!

2. A storm came through on Monday night and into Tuesday...very high winds, very yucky...but MIL had a doctor's appointment up in the front range, so we did a whirlwind trip up there. I got a ton of shopping done, too...particularly considering the compressed time we were working with! We met BIL and his fiancee for dinner, and got to show them the girl's flower girl dresses for the wedding. I still haven't tried them on the girls...I keep thinking they ought to be clean and dry before doing so, and I haven't found a time when they are both yet!

3. I finally got a call from the surgeon's office on Wednesday morning. My insurance company has approved me, and I am scheduled for surgery on April 9th (Holy Thursday). I have my all day pre-op class on Monday (hopefully the weather cooperates for it!) and have to decide on which band I want...Lap-Band or REALIZE Band. They are pretty similar, but that actually makes it harder to decide, to be honest.

4. I had been trying to go visit my parents with the girls, as they are on their spring breaks right now...but when I talked to my mom about the idea, she told me that the weather was supposed to be bad, and that we were supposed to get a blizzard. I hadn't checked the weather (I keep thinking that it is spring, so all the snow should be over!) but sure enough...we have a blizzard!

5. One of hubby's coworkers is pregnant and due any day now. She'll be induced in about a week if she doesn't go into labor before then. Another coworker is on vacation this week (her kids have spring break, so she took it off...) The pregnant co worker's two other kids were puking last night when she got them home from daycare...hubby thought that her going into labor would just top it off. So far as I know, she hasn't yet...but my theory would be, that she'd go into labor right after nursing the kids back to health and not getting a decent night's sleep...that's just how it seems to go to me!

6. Tonight the Knights of Columbus are having their first ever Fish Fry...of course, we have a blizzard outside, but according to hubby, it can't really be put off...so that should be interesting! Also this weekend, the Knights have a 4th degree and district meeting going on...I am in charge of entertaining the women and children. I'm pretty comfortable entertaining children (although I doubt there will be any, other than my own) but I really have no idea how to entertain women...any suggestions?

7. Last Sunday we had the second class in our current series of Natural Family Planning classes. We just had one of our two couples there (the other couple was out of town, so hopefully we will find time for a catch up class before class 3) so we didn't take the scheduled break. At one point, I needed to use the restroom, and I heard voices in the other side of the basement. So, I got up and went to see what was going on. There were several men coming in, I told them that we had a class going on, and asked if I could help them. They said they were there for a Knights meeting (yes...the meeting that will be happening THIS SUNDAY!) so, we had to sort all of that out. One of the men had even cut a trip out of state short so he could be back for the meeting...on the wrong weekend!

Of course, go check out the other quick takes at Jen's blog!

Fox (Catholic) News Channel?

Finding out yesterday that Martha MacCallum is Catholic (see earlier post) got me to wondering: I already knew that two of Fox's biggest names, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, are Catholic...so, how many other on-air Catholics might there be on FNC? Here's what I've been able to find so far (with links to the source for each name):

Bill O'Reilly
Sean Hannity
Martha MacCallum
Neil Cavuto
Bret Baier
Bill Hemmer (at the time of the linked story with CNN, but now on Fox)
Steve Doocy

In addition, former Speaker of the House and frequent Fox contributor Newt Gingrich is reportedly entering the Church this Sunday (March 29th)! And, of course, Fr. Jonathan Morris is often called upon to comment on stories that pertain specifically to Catholicism. (If you're wondering about Glenn Beck-a favorite of MM-his Wikipedia entry says that he was raised Catholic, but has since converted to LDS.)

Now, there are obviously a lot of Catholics in the world. I may have missed other on-air Catholics on Fox, or some of the ones I listed may not practice their faith any more. In any case, this seems like a pretty large percentage of the channel's top-rung talent, and my sense is that their Catholicism may unconsciously influence the overall "feel" of their coverage. During the Holy Father's visit to New York and D.C. last year, I definitely felt that FNC did the most respectful and thorough job of covering the events (outside of EWTN, of course). Maybe this list helps explain why.

Is the Catholic glass half-full or half-empty?

This is kind of a long video, but I found it really fascinating because of what the debate turned to, moreso than what it was intended to cover (although that is an intriguing issue in its own right).

Martha MacCallum of Fox News Channel was interviewing Phil Donahue, a Notre Dame alum, and Fr. Jonathan Morris about Notre Dame's decision to award President Obama an honorary degree this May, despite his continued disregard of the pro-life point of view (by the way, you can sign a petition if you believe Notre Dame should cancel this plan). Right out of the blocks, and for the entire interview, Donahue kept trying to tie this debate to his larger thesis that the Catholic Church is in crisis, and that it needs to consider changing many of its views in order to be more attractive to mainstream Americans. As you can see in the video, he cites his own divorce and refusal to obtain an annulment before remarriage as evidence of modern society's rejection of Catholicism's "archaic" rules and standards.

Sadly, I've seen this before: my late Grandma Eva, for whom our little peanut is named, never followed through on seeking an annulment after her divorce from my grandpa. And, like Phil Donahue, she held that against the Church-even though it was completely her choice not to seek an annulment (which would probably have been granted, had she followed up on it). Just as Donahue refuses to see the vibrancy of the Catholic Church in America, my grandma used her victimization (both real and imagined) to justify her own pessimism and, ultimately, her own failures. It seems to me that these are both cases of people reacting defensively to their own shame, and determining that-since the fault can't be with them-it must lie with the Church.

In this case, MacCallum-who is Catholic-and Fr. Jonathan essentially destroyed Donahue's argument with their own experiences of parish and seminary life. But watch the video and see if you think anything they said is likely to reach Donahue's heart.

Pics from Chuck E. "Jesus"

These are from my phone, so they're not fabulous...but not too bad. I jest a little about how Charlotte says the name of the restaurant, but maybe she's just a good product of her parents' Jesuit education: she's "finding God in all things." ;-)

Great story from our visit with Brittney

Reading over MM's quick takes below, I noticed that she mentioned our visit to Brittney. We're asked so often how she is doing that I thought I'd update her status a little bit here, and relate a really neat story that her dad shared with us while we were visiting.

Britt is doing well enough to be home, but she still has a long way to go before she could live without 24-hour care. She has some use of her arms and legs, but still can't stand unassisted (and even with assistance, not for very long). She can move herself around to some degree with her wheelchair, but still needs help getting to a particular location. She still hasn't worked out a system, whether verbally or with some kind of signal, to indicate "yes" or "no," and the speech therapists at the hospital she was in until last week weren't very positive about whether or not she could understand what others are saying to her...but, since she's been home, she showed them!

Sometime last week, Brittney's dad went to the refrigerator in their house to put away some dip he had been eating. But when he got there, Brittney was parked in her wheelchair in the way of the door. Since he had something else to do, he had Britt hold onto the dip container temporarily and said, jokingly, "Put that in the fridge for me, will ya" (or something about like that). Well, Brittney proceeded to use her right arm (which has less coordination than her left, right now) to pull the refrigerator door open. When it was blocked by her wheelchair, she moved just a little bit and tried again. When she still couldn't get it open enough, she moved a little more and finally got the door to open all the way. She then used her left hand and chucked the dip into the fridge from across her body!

So, this was pretty encouraging for us to find out that she definitely understands at least some of what we're saying to her, and I think it gave her folks evidence that she is still making progress. So we have a little more hope that we'll have her back someday more like what she was before the accident...and a little satisfaction that "the experts" underestimated her!

Quick Takes Friday again!

Well, it does seem like this is the only time I remember to blog anymore, but I guess if I blog every Friday, that's better than going weeks without blogging at all!

1-
I got a call from the bariatric surgeon's office. All my tests are in, the woman in charge of insurance thought that everything looked normal (she was going to run it all past the doc one more time to be sure), and it turns out that our insurance company has changed their way of getting pre-certified. It used to be that everything had to be mailed in, and that it would take about 3 weeks from the date sent to the date approved...well, it turns out that now they allow them to be faxed in, so the office thinks I should have approval by next Tuesday! Tentatively, we've scheduled my surgery for April 9th (Holy Thursday). I also have to go to an all day pre-op class in a little over a week.

2-
Also on the schedule for Holy Week...I am hosting my future sister-in-law's bridal shower. Of course, I planned the date and ordered the invitations BEFORE I found out that my surgery date could be that soon! So, I'm planning a light lunch with quiche, fruit salad, sun dried tomato pasta salad, and the blueberry salad I posted a few weeks ago. MIL is making a cake, so beyond making the food, I need to clean up the building where we are having it, and decorate. Fortunately, hubby's sister (all these SILs are going to get confusing!) is helping me to host...I fear that she is going to have to deal with a large percentage of things that must be done the day of the shower...as I should be 2 days post op, and wandering around with my chicken broth and sugar free jello...

3-
We took an impromptu trip last weekend to see the state basketball finals. I lost my mind when hubby posted on facebook that he would like to go, and so before he got home I had booked a hotel room, packed a bag and had the girls ready to go. On Sunday we (of course) went to church, and the normal priest at that church had recently had some surgery, so the retired bishop of the diocese was the celebrant. That was pretty cool. Fortunately for the girls, and unfortunately for us, there was a Chuck E Cheese's visible from the highway right by our hotel, so we took the girls there for lunch. Charlotte says "Jesus" and "cheeses" about the same, so we are slightly concerned that she may think that it is Chuck E "Jesus"...

4-
Speaking of Charlotte...her new favorite phrase (which I think can be directly attributed to her father...) is "I know dat!" Including things she would have absolutely no way of knowing.

5-
On Wednesday, we visited hubby's family. His brother and fiancee where there as well, which was fun. Somehow, my MIL got out of visiting her MIL by volunteering to watch the girls. So, hubby, me, BIL and future SIL went into town to see their grandma at the nursing home, and then out to see their cousin Brittney who is finally home from the hospital! It was so good to see Britt out of the hospital. It's a lot of work for her mom now, but it looks like she isn't going to go back to work now, which I think will be a very good thing for her and Brittney. I can't imagine that she'd be able to keep her mind on her work without worrying about how Britt is doing...not to mention the stress of hiring a caregiver. There's enough stress just trying to arrange for all her therapies and supplies.

6-
Today is payday...I have to admit that I am not as excited as normal, because I know we have more expenses than income for these two weeks. I guess the good news is that we do have money in the bank, I just wish we didn't have to use it!

7-
Eva is finishing up on her second quarter of Kindergarten...of course, the plan was to take two full years for one year of Kindergarten...but it's looking like we will be done much earlier than that. She is getting really close to reading now, so hopefully it will start to click for her soon.

Well, that's it for me this week. Be sure to check Jen's blog for more Quick Takes!

Quick Takes Friday

1-
Well, I have no pictures this week...just wasn't ambitious enough to take any. Though I do wish I had taken my camera with me to my sleep study...then I could have had my sleep tech take a picture of my head! She had to place about a dozen electrodes on my head (measuring and marking the spots with pen through my hair...and doing anything through my hair is difficult!) some on my legs, belts around my abdomen and chest to measure movement while breathing, a thing up my nose and in my mouth to measure air flow, and then they have a speaker and camera so they can see and hear you all night long. If I had problems before 2 am, they would have put me on a CPAP machine for the rest of the night...but I didn't have any problems by 2 am...I did find out that I breathe shallowly when I am dreaming and on my back (I do fine when I dream on my side) so, there is a possibility that I may have to go back for a second sleep study. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I won't have to...they're not particularly the most fun thing to do.

2-
Yesterday I had a heck of a day...Hubby wanted me to be back to his mom's house during his lunch break, which was supposed to be 3 hours, but ended up being 2 hours. Then he insisted on running a couple of errands before driving up to his mom's house (which is a good 40 minutes away from ours). So, he got up there with his dad's pickup, we packed up the girls, and he ate his lunch in the car. So, I took the girls home, fed them lunch, finally got them down for naps (well, Charlotte anyway) and about the time Charlotte really fell asleep, I found out that I had miscalculated while shopping and put almost $50 too much on the debit card for our local checking account. So, I had to wake up Charlotte, pack the girls up, go see hubby at work to get his ATM card and a check we needed to put in the bank, go to the ATM to get out cash, take cash and check to local bank to put in checking account. Then, we had less than 2 hours before hubby was off work (and he didn't have a car, so I thought we'd be nice and pick him up...) so we went to the park, then to the grocery store...finally after we picked up hubby we went out for dinner (it was that kind of day all over!)

3-
I got new shoes for myself and Eva while up in the big city. Eva's new shoes have Dora on them, but they don't blink. My new shoes are...well, just normal shoes...and Eva commented that they don't have Dora or blink. I told her I didn't think they made Dora or Blinkie shoes in mommy sizes. She said "well, some mama's have blinkie shoes, but you don't." I'd like to convince Eva otherwise, but I don't think I'll be able to...so, if anyone has mommy blinkie shoes, please let me know!

4-
I had dinner by myself at the bar of a restaurant during happy hour...and had water to drink because of my sleep study. It was kinda fun, but pretty weird to eat all by myself.

5-
Hubby took the day on Wednesday (his day off and the day of all my doctor's appointments) to borrow his dad's pickup and clean out the garage (it's been a long time coming!) He thought he'd have to pay for two trips to the dump, but when he took the first one over (which was all metal) he didn't have to pay anything. They must be able to recycle the metal. Then, his second trip was about to fall out of the pickup, as he had several mattresses (that came with our house) perched on top. They made it to the dump, and hubby just managed to get done unloading the pickup as they were locking the dump for the night.

6-
The girls stayed at grandma's house from Wednesday morning to Thursday afternoon. While there, they had about 3 ice creams each day, and did whatever they wanted to, whenever they wanted to! They also got to see hubby's cousin Brittney when she got home from the hospital on Wednesday night. So, that was the good side...the down side is that my FIL had MILs car because his truck wasn't working, so MIL got a ride over to Brittney's house with one of her SILs who has granddaughters fairly close in age to my girls (and had car seats in her car already!). Well, FIL came to pick up MIL and the girls, but didn't stop and get the car seats...and refused to go get them because he had to go unload some trucks...so MIL strapped the girls into her car in normal seat belts...coming home from the house of someone who has severe injuries and disabilities from not wearing a car seat in an accident. I've lectured MIL already (even though I was trying not to...) but have to admit that I am not happy at all about what happened...

7-
Getting the girls up to grandma's house and getting me to the doctor's office were challenges this week. We got about 2 miles out of our town to find out that the road between our town and MILs town was closed and detoured. Now, in our county, no dirt road goes more than 2 miles in one direction before turning, so we decided not to use the detour created (because it detoured to the wrong side of town...) and instead went on a back route to MILs house. Then, I dropped off the kids and hubby and got on the road....I thought I had missed my exit because of some road construction on the highway (had to call MIL to see where the right exit was) and then the highway into the city was closed down and I had to take a detour. Of course, I managed to get pretty lost trying to get back on the road home the next day. I really shouldn't be allowed to travel alone!

More quick takes are up at Jen's blog!

Belated Lenten Resolution

Did you know that Union troops during the Civil War found a document, Special Order 191, lying on a battlefield...and it turned out to be orders from Robert E. Lee detailing plans for a whole series of upcoming battles. It's true! (I even heard about it on "The Rest of the Story" once!) This information helped turn the tide of the war, which at that point was going badly for the North, and was probably instrumental in determining its ultimate outcome. Can you imagine if that document had never been found?

Well, Harry Turtledove did more than just imagine it: he's written thousands of pages of "alternate history" based on the premise that, because of this one small change in actual events, the entire history of North America was radically changed. I read the first book based on this idea, How Few Remain, a couple of years ago and absolutely loved it. Then, a few months ago, I found out that there was a trilogy of books following the same characters through World War I (in which the USA and the CSA -Confederate States of America, that is-were on opposing sides).


So, I ordered those three books from Paperbackswap, and promptly wanted to do nothing but sit and read them. The problem is that they are each about 500 pages long, plus (it turns out) there are seven MORE books (each about the same length) following the same characters through the Depression era and World War II. Assuming the books average around 500 pages each, that's 5,500 pages of "what if"s! At that point, I have to reassess how committed I am to seeing the series through (kinda like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, which to date has totaled about 9,600 pages, and-as much as I like it-has gotten to be an endurance test).

Besides being a daunting amount of reading, I think I would probably have a problem with the books' affects on my relationship with my family. Knowing how I get when I am engrossed in a story, I would probably try to read the remaining books every chance I get until finish them all. It would make it hard for me to get what I need to do around the house done but, more importantly, it would keep me from giving enough attention to MM and the kids.

THEREFORE, I've resolved to give up reading these books for the foreseeable future. I have the first of the Depression-era trilogy on its way via Paperbackswap right now, but I think I may even list it back on the site to avoid tempting me to get sucked in again. I didn't really plan on giving anything up this Lent but, as timing would have it, this works out pretty well. I think this will result in my growing more as a father and husband than something like giving up chocolate would, anyway.

A new book I want to read...

Okay, so I really enjoy the blog Owlhaven...and Mary has just finished her book "A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family", which I really, really, REALLY want to read. Turns out that she's doing a giveaway for people who blog about it, so here I am...

But of course, being the Paperbackswap addict that I am, I first went to PBS to see if I could be first on the wishlist for the book...

I'm number 3 on the list...

So, here's to hoping that I am the lucky winner! Make sure you head over to her blog and check it out!

Quick Takes Friday

1-
I'm preparing for my sleep study next Wednesday night, and part of the prep work is keeping a sleep log. I'm not totally sure that my sleep has been what it usually is, but if this is indeed a normal week of sleep...well, no wonder I'm a little grouchy sometimes! (Okay, I shouldn't complain...I've gotten decent night's sleep this week, but I am the type of person who really needs 8 hours...)

2-
Using my MILs laminator/sticker maker (which she said was mine, and that she had another one that belonged to her somewhere in her house...I don't remember her getting me a laminator...but I may just take her up on it one of these days...) I finished up the Dino Colors and Alphabet Hearts games for Charlotte. I also made her a VeggieTales tot book from here. But Eva hasn't be left totally out of the action...I'm working on putting together two lapbooks for her to do after we finish her schoolwork (she has 1-2 more weeks, depending on the subject, and I've scheduled until Easter for this quarter of work...) so I have to figure out how to put together a bigger lapbook sometime soon.

3-
Hubby spent the entire day on Wednesday working on the house! We have been in here since January 1, 2006 and the house has been unfinished in several places since then. So, Wednesday was spent getting the soffiting (I really have no idea how to spell that, and apparently, neither does the spell checker...) on the trim of the porch (lots of very detailed cuts required) in a few more days of working during his break, it should be completed. Then I am hoping to find a utility sink at the Habitat Restore while I am up for my psychological evaluation and sleep study next week. I was inspired to at least give it a try because of this post.
4-
On Wednesday, I managed to jam my big toe pretty badly tripping over the door to our bedroom...the good news is I fell into the bed (I guess that's one of the nice things about having a bed that takes up an entire room!)...the bad news is that my clumsiness continued for most of the day, and included managing to slam my finger into the latch of MILs screen door (I'm still not sure how I managed that one...) and a few small incidents with scissors. My toe still hurts today, but at least my hands are better.

5-
We went to do the Stations of the Cross last night at church...we decided to make it to at least one daily Mass or pray a family rosary or something extra related to church each week during Lent. Father moved the normal Thursday night Mass to Thursday morning and has no Mass today (I think he may be out of town for meetings...I'm not really sure.) Normally, Stations are done after the Thursday night Mass, and we usually can't handle keeping the kids calm and controlled for more than the Mass...so we did Stations instead of Mass (since hubby can't make it to the morning Mass times...) and it went pretty well. There was another little girl there (she's between Eva and Charlotte in age) and the three of them did get into a little bit of trouble for trying to play. We had to give Eva a lecture on "we are here to pray, not to play right now..." BUT, all of the other adults told us (hubby and me and the other little girl's grandpa) that the girls did a really good job. I guess I'm glad that the standard isn't too high for the 4 and under crowd.

6-
Funny wedding planning note about my BIL...he and his fiancee had figured out a head count of 150 for the reception meal, so they decided that they needed to order 200 invitations to the wedding to make up for those who won't be able to make it (his fiancee is from out of state, so I'm sure that there will be quite a few people unable to attend...) The next day, his fiancee realized that they didn't need that many invitations, as the 150 for food included families that would only need 1 invitation (so, for instance, our 4 wouldn't need 4 invitations, just 1) but BIL was certain that they needed that many invitations...so that's what they ended up with. And now BIL had to admit that he was wrong...not something the men in that family do very well. Gotta love wedding planning...and gotta love the fact that we don't have to do anything like that for a long time...
7-
But, we are coming up on our 10th anniversary this summer...time does fly! So, we are thinking of a vacation for the two of us (the girls will gladly stay with grandma...) but aren't getting too creative. Obviously, any trip we take will be on a small budget, but it looks like travel bargains might be easy to find this year. We don't have passports, so we'll probably stay in the states...and we don't want to do anything that would be really close to something educational (then hubby would want to take the girls...and so would I...for a home school field trip...) so as of now, we are thinking of Vegas. Any other recommendations? I've never been to Vegas, and hubby hasn't been since before he was old enough to gamble (I'm guessing he went there sometime during high school for some school related thing...) so I don't even know if it is worth going.

Of course, as always, there are more quick takes at Jen's blog, with a very sweet picture of her brand new baby girl! Big congrats to Jen on such a cutie!

I am a crafty supermom!

Okay, it isn't that often that I get crafty with or for the kids around here...it's just not really in my nature (although I guess when I did alphabet crafts with Eva for preschool, I must have been temporarily insane!) So, since I did get all crafty, I took some pictures (before things get destroyed.

I recently came across the idea of Tot School. I found the idea through a Carnival of Homeschooling post a while back, and just found the idea interesting. Since Charlotte is getting more difficult to contain while I do school with Eva, I thought doing some tot school with Charlotte would be a good idea. I got the template for Alphabet Hearts here, and the template for the Cinderella Tot Book here.

Eva found the instructions for how to make a spiritual bouquet at EWTN kids. So, for art class this week, we made this spiritual bouquet for Brittney who should be coming home from the hospital next week.

Finally, here's another view of the Cinderella Tot Book, and also a peek at Dino Colors, which I found here. The Alphabet Hearts and Dino Colors folders still need some work...I need to go use my MILs laminater to make them a little sturdier for little miss thing. I'd better get to class, since Charlotte is dancing around me and wants her Cinderella book!

Quick Takes Friday!

1-
We got our new digital camera this week (yeah!) and we took a trip to the park to do P.E. on Wednesday. Hubby downloaded the pictures to the computer for me, so here area few shots...notice how nice the motion shots are...I really should post a few bad pics from our old camera, but I'm not feeling that ambitious. Also, hubby found out that our new camera cord works for his beloved cell phone...so the smaller pictures are from there (just in case you couldn't figure it out by picture quality alone!)

2-
Speaking of Wednesday...Ash Wednesday...it ALWAYS amazes me at how many people show up for Mass on Ash Wednesday! Our church was packed at 7:15 PM, and we didn't get home until after 8:30, then we gave the girls the quickest and most drama queen inducing of baths ever and sent them to bed. When we went Thursday night for Mass, the parking lot was empty (there were 4 other people at the Mass, and I think only 2 of the 8 of us stayed for stations of the cross...I'm hoping some other people showed up after we left!)

3-
Charlotte is finally on an antibiotic. We had to take her in AGAIN on Monday (they wouldn't just call one in for her...) and our doc was booked up again, so I tried another one. I've decided that I like him for sick kids...maybe it's just because Charlotte didn't scream her way through the appointment, and the appointment ended with a prescription...

4-
About an hour or so ago, I told Eva to go get dressed. She asked why, and I said so we could start school...she burst into tears and said "I don't want to do school today!"...so we are skipping school until tomorrow. It turns out the breakdown wasn't an "I hate school" moment...instead of doing HER school, she wanted to teach Charlotte school...so hubby and the girls are in the girls room right now teaching Charlotte school.

5-
I had my second appointment leading up to gastric band surgery...this one was with the dietitian. So, on Tuesday hubby was off, and the four of us drove with hubby's mom up to the front range for her appointment (infusion for her MS) and mine. A lot of times, she'll have multiple doctor's appointments, but this time it was just one for her at 2pm and one for me at 2 pm (about 20 minutes away from each other), so we all took the girls to Chuck E Cheese's. Talk about good advertising on PBS...Eva's been seeing their sponsorship of her favorite PBS shows for years, and I didn't think too much of it. You would've thought we were at Disneyland! The girls had such a great time, and by the end, Eva had a pack of kids she was dragging around, and Charlotte was flirting with a bunch of little boys...I'm in so much trouble with those two!

6-
Along with my appointment with the dietitian, I had to do some blood tests and an EKG. I was a little freaked out by the idea of an EKG, but actually it was really easy! It took the woman doing the test longer to place the electrodes on me than it took to run the test. When I got down for the blood work, I found out that I was also supposed to do a breath test for some sort of stomach bacteria...but that I had taken some medicine that I couldn't have for two weeks before the test, so I'll have to go back in and do that test when I go up for my psychological evaluation and sleep study in two weeks.

7-
Charlotte was so impressed by the ashes for Ash Wednesday, that she's been able to talk about little else since then...she keeps pointing to her head and talking about ashes (particularly when we are at church, because the bowls that were used for the ashes are part of the Lenten decorations. Our parish is really into symbols (which I have to admit, I really don't get...but when in Rome...) and the symbol they have for everyone to take home this lent is a nail...it makes sense, but I am not bringing home a nail (they aren't sharp or anything, but I see no good that could come from one in our house this Lent) now, our parish has a HUGE number of small children (the 12 ladies currently in my bible study have 27 kids...and the 3 who have dropped out for now have an additional 10, with the oldest of all these kids being 7...not to mention all of the other women in our parish with little ones...) so why a NAIL seemed like a good symbol, I guess I am just not understanding!

There are as always, more quick takes at Jen's blog...and her new baby is due on Monday! How exciting!!!

Hurley has a blog!

Okay, thanks to Danielle Bean, I now know that Jorge Garcia (who plays Hurley on LOST) and I am really enjoying it...I particularly related to this post involving coupons!

Oh yeah, and an update on the digital camera...it really does seem to be broken, so we researched cameras last night and ended up purchasing one...we're just doing our part to stimulate the economy! (And I am really looking forward to that kids and pets setting!)

7 Quick Takes Friday

1-
It's payday!!! YEAH!!! We actually didn't quite make it to payday this time, since the girls got sick. I took some funds out of our medical sinking fund for a prescription, pedialyte, Popsicles, a few groceries (including really expensive frozen squash that the girls wouldn't eat...the doc recommended it for helping Charlotte's poo hold together...but they DID eat it in muffin form, and didn't know any better!) and BLEACH. I have bleached Charlotte's sheets about 4 times this week.

2-
A quote from last night's dinner. "Other than the throwing up, Dinner was REALLY good!" hubby spoke those words...Charlotte did the throwing up.

3-
I am really blessed to have my MIL (even if she is a little bit nuts...) She had an Altar and Rosary meeting a few towns over from ours, and afterwards she was going to come see the girls. Well, shortly before her visit, Eva took a horrible turn for the worse, and was whiny, her ears hurt, she was crying and flopping around. I don't know how much of it was genuine, but I have a feeling a big portion of the dramatics was due to not getting as much attention as her sister...so I called MIL to see where she was. She asked if she should stop and get me a mocha on the way here, and I told her that it would be very appreciated...particularly if she picked up something for Eva. So, she brought us all drinks from the coffee shop AND she had apparently stopped at the grocery store on the way here to get a few things for her house, and she got a bunch of stuff for our house, too!

4-
Among the Twinkies and jello and chicken soup MIL brought ingredients for a salad she had in San Diego the night before they went on their cruise. It was SOOO good that I'll put a sort-of kind-of recipe here:
1/2 head of leaf lettuce (I'm not sure what the original salad had...we only have two varieties available out here)
1/2 bag of baby spinach
1/2 small package of blueberries
1/2 small package of blackberries
1/2 container of blue cheese crumbles
1/2 c. or so of sugared walnuts (I toasted some in a skillet with butter and brown sugar...it worked for me!)
She told me that it didn't have a dressing at all, that the fruit just kinda made a dressing...well, maybe they had juicier fruit out in California...but I added a little bit of balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil to the top...

5-
I just checked our bank account (to make sure that hubby's paycheck really did make it in there, etc...) and found out that OUR TAX REFUND FINALLY MADE IT!!! WOO HOO!!! (Okay, I have been obsessively checking for it since last Friday when it was supposed to arrive...) That means that we have 1/2 of our fully funded emergency fund in there! YEAH!!! And some money to work on some home improvement stuff. The bad news is that I think I broke our digital camera today (I was trying to upload a picture of my week, but it's not working for me...) so I may have to start looking for a new one...

6-
I am in the middle of planning a bridal shower for my BIL's fiancee. Her maid of honor is giving her one up where they currently live, but I think she needs a small town family shower. My family shower when coming into this family was a spice shower...really, that's only a good idea in a group of people who cook with more spices than chili powder, garlic powder and garlic salt...I got about three each of those. So, I've proposed an "around-the-clock" shower where each guest is assigned an hour to pick a themed gift for...and maybe a brunch to go with it. We'll see what the bride-to-be (they always call them "bride-elect" in the church bulletin...I'd never heard that term before we moved out to the boonies...) thinks about all of that. I've been having fun working on a photo card invitation at snapfish. Anyone have some good tips for bridal showers? Better theme idea? Fun (not dorky) games? Healthy food options for a shower?

7-
Last, but certainly not least, hubby's cousin Brittney is having surgery today. So, please say a few prayers that all goes well for her. Thank you!

As always, more quick takes are up at Jen's blog!

Meatless Meals

I can't believe how soon Ash Wednesday is...once I'm done with making weird meals out of what's left in the fridge and pantry preceding payday (3 cooked meals to go before I can go grocery shopping! YEAH!!!) I'm going to have to start worrying about fasting and abstinence from meat.

So, since Faith and Family LIVE is having a meatless meals collection, I thought I'd add my two cents.

Lentil Rice Casserole (I may have posted this before, but I didn't want to check through 3 years of posts...I know it sounds lame, but my girls eat this better than almost anything! The original recipe came from the tightwad gazette)

Combine in crock pot
6 cups water or broth or stock
1 1/2 c. lentils
1 c. brown rice
1 T. or more of whatever spice you feel like (I usually use spice combinations like Italian Seasoning, Southwest Seasoning, Asian Seasoning, Moroccan Seasoning)
Add chopped onion or garlic if you like it and have it on hand
Cook on low for 6-8 hours, a few minutes before serving, sprinkle about a cup of cheese over the top (maybe mozzarella if you do Italian, cheddar if you do southwest, feta if you do Moroccan, etc.) Serve, watch kids devour.

Fried fish (I think I originally got this off of AllRecipes.com...it was during one of those times when I was trying to cook solely from my stockpile without going to the store)

Take white fish (whatever type you like or can find...we don't have a lot of fish options out here in cow country...) dry off any surface moisture. Let soak in a pan of Sprite (7up, etc) for a couple of minutes, turn and soak other side. Dredge in pancake batter and pan fry in a little bit of oil until crispy and cooked through.


Pizza (Cheese pizza is the end all be all of meals around here...okay, they like pepperoni pizza, too...but for Lent, we are all about the cheese...) I've used this recipe for years, so I don't now where I originally found it.

Pizza Dough (makes 2 crusts)
2 1/4 t. yeast (one packet if you do it that way)
1 T. sugar
2 1/2 c. warm water
2 T. olive oil
1 T. salt
2 T. wheat gluten (nice to have, but I ran out a while back, and haven't replaced it yet...still works okay if you don't have the gluten)
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
5 1/2 c. white flour

Dissolve yeast and sugar in water; let stand for 10 minutes. Stir oil, wheat flour, gluten, salt and 4 cups of white flour into yeast mixture. Mix in remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time. when dough has pulled together, turn onto lightly-floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl; place dough into bowl and turn to coat with oil. cover with a damp cloth and put into a warm place to rise (approximately 1 hour). Deflate dough and turn onto lightly-floured surface. Divide into third and form rounds. (If freezing extra dough for later, at this point, seal inside a gallon zip top bag and put in freezer.) Cover round(s) with cloth for 10 minutes. Roll out or toss dough; place on pan or baking stone sprinkled with cornmeal and top with spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce or garlic oil, then cover with cheese. Bake pizzas for 20 minutes at 425.

Store leftover dough in freezer, keep frozen shredded cheese in freezer (about 1 1/2 to 2 cups per pizza) and freeze leftover spaghetti or pizza sauce in ice cube trays. I use three cubes full of sauce for 1 pizza...if you like saucy pizza you might do 4 or 5 cubes.

So, there are some of my favorite meatless meals! Check out more over at Faith and Family LIVE.

Alone in a crowd

Today at Mass, the readings began with a description of Old Testament requirements for isolating people with leprosy and ended with Jesus healing a leper. Father mostly focused on the metaphorical sense in which these readings could be taken, with physical illness being symbolic of spiritual illness, i.e. sin.

One aspect of Father's homily that I really connected with was an anecdote about how, when he was a seminarian and helping teach a parish's first communion class, he had exlained Hell to the seven-year-olds. When asked about it, he told them that it was a state of being seperated from the presence of God forever. The kids really didn't understand this, despite several tries of wording it differently, so Father used the analogy of, "Imagine you are in a huge, crowded mall with your mommy, and you're holding your mommy's hand. Then imagine that, somehow, you lose your grip on her hand and suddenly, you are completely surrounded by people you don't know and can't find your mommy, no matter how hard you try. That's what Hell is like."

This idea, Father said, is basically his response when people-mostly men, he says-blithely laugh off the idea of Hell by saying something like, "Well, at least I'll have plenty of company there." Even if that were true, he said, each of those people would be isolated from God and, therefore, somehow isolated from one another (even if not actually physically). They would each be in their own personal Hell, even if it "looked" to an outsider like a huge crowd.

One of my favorite songs in high school, recorded by Dave Matthews Band, included the lyrics, "People in every direction; no words exchanged, no time to exchange them." I think I really struggled with this feeling back then, and still do to some degree (although this has been hugely reduced by being married and having children). Maybe you know the feeling: like you're alone, even in the company of many others. Maybe you've noticed, when you meet someone on the sidewalk, the tendency many of us have of averting our eyes-avoiding even the momentary connection you might make with someone else.

God, please help me to remember that you made us to love one another and to share our lives with one another. If artificially seperating ourselves from one another is what it's like to be seperated from you, help us to find healing and come together in our families, our communities, and our world. Amen

PS: As you might suspect, Father did admit that the whole class of seven-year-olds wound up in tears. Oops! :-)

Kinda depressing...but...fitting...

Well, one of my favorite overly opinionated bloggers stole this from someone else, so I'm stealing it from her...(and if you spend any time there, make sure to read the category "Stupid Fascist Bastards"...just sayin'...)

7 Quick Takes Friday

1-
I think that my MIL and my girls are probably all going through withdrawal...They haven't seen each other in 13 days...I'm actually pretty sure that this is the longest period of time since Eva's birth that they have been apart...MIL and FIL got home from their cruise, and FIL got sick...so on Tuesday when I hosted bible study at our house, hubby had to take the girls over one town to DQ and a basketball game instead of up to visit grandma. THEN, MIL was going to come down and help me out/hang out with the girls yesterday (hubby was out of town for most of the day), but SHE ended up getting sick, so she couldn't make it down...now Eva and I are getting sick...so the 13 days may drag on even longer!

2-
Continuing with my ambition in the kitchen, for bible study I made homemade fajitas and homemade tortillas...then I fell off the made from scratch wagon. I ended up using a Wanchai Ferry Chinese food from a box (cashew chicken, yum!) thing, which was really really good, and made me want to learn how to make Chinese food. I bought Edamame last time we were at WalMart (not something sold locally) because I thought it would be fun to try. Hubby wasn't so sure that it would be fun...it turns out that the girls LOVE edamame, and so I am thinking I may have to grow some this summer.

3-
Hubby is working in another town today...so, it (naturally) snowed last night (and of course, I didn't make the girls pick up all the outside toys yesterday because they of course had to come in the house and start whining at me while I was actually trying to accomplish something) and I woke up in the middle of the night to take some medicine, then Eva woke up about an hour later and we gave her some medicine...then hubby reset his alarm because he thought that the snow was going to keep him from traveling to the other town to work. So, he woke up at 5:30...called the boss at the out of town office, found out that he still needed to go, and jumped in the shower. I made him coffee, breakfast (toaster strudel still counts as making breakfast, right?) and gave him some cash for lunch. Then, I was about to head back to bed, and right when I was about to turn off the kitchen light, the phone rang (at 5:50 AM) so, I gave the guy hubby's cell phone number...there's really nothing like the phone ringing before 6 in the morning...

4-
Hopefully the roads will be okay this evening. One of the churches in the next town over is showing the movie "Fireproof" and offering free childcare...I'm very excited about the free childcare thing...and I've wanted to see Fireproof for quite some time now.

5-
Update on the library book on tape that Charlotte destroyed last Friday...hubby went into the library for me to see what we needed to do...they told him to bring back the special book on tape bag, but that our girls could just keep the book. They said we didn't need to replace it, because they were planning on buying a hardcover version of the book in honor of one of the women in town.

6-
I am anxiously awaiting our tax refund...according to TurboTax's first estimate, we should get our refund today...of course, it is not there yet. Then the IRS estimated it would be here by the 17th when I checked last week. When I checked this week, it said by the 24th...I'm really hoping for the 17th. Once it is in our savings, we will have 50% of our emergency fund funded...and we'll also have a little money for home improvement projects (hubby is sooo excited...not...)

7-
I recently subscribed to Cookie Magazine...I'm really not sure what my thinking was when I did so...I like getting magazines because sometimes that's about all I can handle. My favorite, of course, is Faith and Family. I used to get Good Housekeeping, but it grated on me after a while because of its idea of "budget" items, etc. So, after that ended, I subscribed to WonderTime (still have that subscription, too) which has some pretty good stuff, but is a little bit yuppy. I'm thinking that I thought Cookie might be a more family friendly good housekeepingish magazine that dealt with moms of younger kids...but I just read my first issue yesterday (I got two, so we'll see if I like the second one any better) and half the magazine was about s-e-x...and not in a good Catholic way, either...there's even a line drawing of a woman in a thong and garter on one page...so I don't even feel like I can keep the magazine at kid level and not get questions...

More quick takes, as always, over at Jen's blog!

Now, I know I'm insane...

...but this made me laugh until I cried...

7 Quick Takes Friday - In Case You Were Wondering??

1-
First of all, I went on retreat last weekend. The retreat billed itself as a "healing retreat", and I dragged my SIL along with me. I was the first person there in the morning (SIL missed the turn for the Knights of Columbus hall), and so I sat down at one of the tables, opened my folder, saw this, and contemplated running away...

In the end, I did stay, and I am much more comfortable with the concept and the practice of the "woo woo gifts" (as my table leader liked to call them...) Hubby, on the other hand is still VERY suspicious...particularly of speaking in tongues and being slain in the spirit...so I'm thinking that when our church has a charismatic retreat this summer that I might make him go!

2-
I changed our theme on gmail yesterday (to ninjas...just for hubby who thinks he ought to have been a ninja or a pirate...one of his coworkers told him that he snorts too much to be a ninja...and that's definitely true..) and it asked me to put in our city...so I did...and Gmail told me that I did not input a valid city name. In the end, this time I put in Denver (I don't know why Gmail needs to know where I am located for a ninja themed e-mail browser...) The last time this happened, I was entering a sweepstakes (a very dorky hobby of mine...wait...I don't have any non-dorky hobbies!) I think maybe it was for an RV...when I put in our city name, it told me that it did not have enough letters (as though I have control over how many letters are in our town's name...) that time, I got creative and used the name of another town that shares our zip code (and has about 100 people in it...)

3-
Last week for story time at the library, they met at the local museum and talked about buffalo bones and the Indians that used to live around here. So, Eva has been telling us all about the museum ever since. Hubby had Wednesday off, and really wanted to take the girls on a field trip (he wanted to do the Denver Zoo or Museum of Nature and Science...but as it was BEFORE PAYDAY, we ended up doing the closer and way more affordable local museum...) It's a good thing we didn't go much farther, because I don't think we even spent 45 minutes there...Naturally Charlotte pooped her diaper on the walk up and smelled terrible the whole time (that child WILL be potty training soon...) and we took the tour at Eva speed. It is a pretty neat museum...much better organized than the one in hubby's hometown.

4-
Continuing with my goal to make more things from scratch (such as the hot dog buns and tortillas I posted about already), and continuing with my new tradition of cooking steaks the dinner before payday (we're working our way through half a quarter beef...) we had a really tasty dinner last night of rib eye steaks, Au gratin potatoes and glazed carrots (The only veggies currently in the house are some carrot and celery sticks, a bag of frozen soup veggies, and the last bag of corn we put up this summer...) I really need more practice on timing from scratch items. Hubby grilled out the steaks, and also grilled a bunch of chicken legs while he was at it, so I have a meal for today half done already!

5-
You don't want to know how many times a day the girls want to watch the "Pug Summer" video that hubby posted here last week...not to mention the "Bad Pugs" video that if you want to see, you'll have to go over to YouTube (think really bad singing with words changed to relate to a pug using the theme song from COPS)

6-
Today is FILs 50th birthday. Most likely he is being harassed at meals on their cruise. I am wondering how the whole cruise boat thing is going. MIL called me right before they left (they were on the lido deck, with frosty beverages in hand) because they told her that cell phones wouldn't work once they set sail (MIL without her phone for a week is an entertaining thought! She's worse about her cell phone than hubby is about his...and he updates facebook mobily quite a bit now...) The cruise ends tomorrow, then they fly home on Sunday.

7-
I hope that they are having a good time, but I am REALLY looking forward to them getting back...you see, we get their dog when they go on vacation (I guess it's only fair, since they get our dog every time we go out of town...) She's a pug (Bubba's older sister) and her face is even more squished that Bubba's face. Well, she is used to being fed wet dog food that makes her smell (she's getting mostly dry here), sleeping in bed with MIL and FIL (she gets a pillow on the floor here) and getting lots of table scraps (it's a dog eat dog world around here...plus the kids don't drop too much, so she's really screwed...) She is a very sweet dog...but THE SNORING!!! I don't know if I can take it much longer...I'm already suffering from sleep deprivation, and I still have two nights to go!

Of course, there are plenty more quick takes over at Jen's blog!

BONUS EDIT...

So, I just finished up school with Eva, and part way through I noticed that Charlotte was playing with the library books...in particular a book on tape. I told her no, and to put the book back...she left it alone for a while. I looked up later, and noticed she had the book out of the bag, and told her to put it back...she couldn't so she brought it to me, and it was then that I discovered to my horror that she had pulled all of the tape out of the cassette...and actually severed it...so now hubby is going to stop by the library on the way home to find out how we can deal with this (if I can just order a new one for the library, it will be about $8...I remember library replacement fees for books to be $25 when I was a kid...I shudder to think what the standard replacement fee might be now...) Not a particularly good start to the day...

If hubby can do this...surely I can figure it out...

So, here goes!

Not to pat myself on the back or anything...

...but I just have to say that I rock!

Okay, so I'm a dork, but anyone who bothers to read this blog knows this already...

Our fridge is getting to be VERY pathetic looking, as payday is not until Friday. So, I've been getting a little ambitious with meal prep (other than the totinos pizza rolls for lunch yesterday since hubby had a last minute schedule change...)

On Monday, after my weekend retreat (more about that on Friday...I need to scan in a picture...) I made homemade sloppy joes, served with apples and homemade pickles. I got dinner in the crock pot early, and made Moroccan chicken casserole...then we decided to go up to my MILs house so that I could clean her kitchen while she is away on her cruise (and hubby had a meeting to go to up there) and I brought the crock pot along.

Yesterday night, I made homemade mac and cheese and dessert (a special request by Eva). We had a little leftover, and had that with brats on my homemade hot dog buns and homemade pickles for lunch today.

And tonight, I had 4 chicken thighs left over (uncooked) from when I made the chicken casserole, so I needed to get them used today. I didn't quite know what to do, so we decided on tacos. We roasted the chicken meat, defrosted a bag of my homemade refried beans (made last week in the crock pot), pulled out a little cheese, a jar of homemade salsa, and I made tortillas from this recipe. Served with corn that we put up this summer, I am feeling very pleased with myself.

And now a word from Eva, who was informing me that I could change the color of my text...

"Dear grandpa and grandma. I want to see you here but you are on vacation and I want to see you again and go on vacation with you."

...and now Charlotte

I sit. Mommy and daddy talk.

There you go...and I am going to go play sequence for kids now!

Beautiful pro-life music video

You might want to watch this without kids in the room, just because it's a love song to a child who was never allowed to be born...and your kids might not be old enough to have that conversation yet. Plus, if you react like I did, they will probably wonder why you're crying. (just a little, though!)

h/t to American Papist

25 things about me

So, I'm going on a little bit of a Facebook binge while MM is out of town on retreat. But this is really trying to be economical with my online time: I developed this list for Facebook and am now using it here because I thought someone out there might be a little bit interested. To be honest, I really got the idea from MM, who did exactly the reverse: after losing her first version of "25 things," she copied and pasted parts of her January quick takes from here to create a new list for Facebook. Anyway, here's this:

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1. [MM] and I are both apparently techno-dolts, as we both managed to lose our 25 things lists ([MM]'s after she thought she had published it, which may have ended her relationship with the notes application.)

2. This should not really be surprising, as we are both (a postal worker and a stay at home mom) walking, talking anachronisms.

3. Two books having to do with the "philosophical underpinnings" of a postal system, both of which I really enjoyed, are David Brin's "The Postman" (although I've never seen the Costner movie) and Terry Pratchett's "Going Postal."

4. No, I'm not going postal. And it's not really that funny, the 800th time it's been asked.

5. Although I can kinda see how it happens: bureaucracy's "irrationality of rationality" and all, a la Max Weber.

6. See? I (sort of) use my Sociology degree in my daily life!

7. I think, if I had it to do over, I might've majored in History. I tend toward that in much of my independent learning and reading now.

8. Not that I didn't enjoy a Soc major and minors in Philosophy and Peace and Justice Studies...but "enjoyed" don't pay the bills. Heh

9. I do think all the critical thinking exercise I received during this course of study helped me kick some serious butt on the LSAT. Too bad I really, really didn't want to be a lawyer, when all was said and done.

10. I'm pretty content now just providing for my family doing whatever will pay the bills in a morally acceptable way.

11. I don't know how it's going to look, but I really like the idea behind what [our alma mater] (I've read) is doing outside the Science Building w/r/t the interconnectedness of "faith" and "reason."

12. During my lifetime, I think I've gone from one extreme to other, thinking they were either/or. Now I think it's a largely false dichotomy, but there still is some creative tension between the two.

13. Maybe that's why I like "Lost" so much. I think it's BOTH sci-fi AND fantasy. Jack and Locke are both right.

14. W/r/t "Lost," though, I do lean more toward "goober" than "scooby." See http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1550612_20245769_20253740,00.html if you care to figure out what that means.

15. While at ew.com, I noticed a story called "29 films you saw too young." It's funny, because I was just thinking about how I had a hard time reading "Lord of the Rings" again when I was really old enough to get more out of it because I had probably read it too early, and how Eva's gotten some really cool toys that were just too old for her but then were trashed by the time she could really get something out of them. I think this is analogous to a lot of experiences (and lifestyle choices). But that's just me, and I probably never would've thought that when I was younger.

16. Going back to the faith and reason thing, we just saw Ben Stein's "Expelled" film. Whatever your feelings on intelligent design, evolution, etc. I can't recommend this documentary highly enough. It's so much better than I expected it to be.

17. I'd better stop rambling and hurry this up before I have to leave for work.

18. I'm paranoid about losing all this again and have been periodically copying the whole thing just in case.

19. I'm glad to have moved back out to the boondocks, although there are times I miss being able to go to lectures on a whim, etc. I think I actually miss the city more than [MM] does, though it's still not that much.

20. I'd like where we live a little more if I didn't have to drive by the Butte Motel every day. One side of the sign lost the last "e," so it now says Butt Motel. I don't know why that bothers me so much, but it really does.

21. We have a pug named Bubba.

22. We are beginning to suspect that our two-year-old, Charlotte, may be allergic to Bubba. This may become a problem.

23. I love my kids very much. It helps that they're already little dorks like their parents.

24. I'm proud of how [MM] and Eva are doing with the homeschooling so far. I am excited to see the fruits of this develop.

25. My life is totally not what I thought it was going to be ten years ago. Thank God!

And now for something completely different...

Yes, this is stupid. It also has me about to fall out of my chair laughing. You be the judge of whether that's a compliment to the song or an indictment of me!

Quick Takes Friday

1-
We ordered another Spanish program yesterday...Eva will be done with the first Kindergarten Spanish program in two weeks...I'm still looking for the perfect one, so if anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate it! So far we have (almost) finished Teach Them Spanish, and have ordered Flip Flop Spanish.

2-
I finally made decent looking hot dog buns (they were a little crumbly, but I think this recipe has definite potential!) from these instructions.

3-
MIL, SIL, the girls and I went to see Matthew Kelly speak this week. He was really good...I just wish I hadn't missed the first part of his talk because of a VERY poopy diaper...(Speaking of poopy diapers...I don't remember for the life of me how we potty trained Eva...any pointers and tips? We are hoping to transition before too long!) Back to Matthew Kelly...we got a bunch of his books (surprise, surprise!) including his DVD set and workbook. MIL and I are hoping that we will be able to get our Women of Grace group back together to work through his study. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that maybe we'll get it together for Lent.

4-
Since giving up diet soda and transitioning to coffee, I have discovered that it is necessary to buy those ginormous coffee containers...and for some reason, I find it a little disturbing to go through as much coffee and we are going through!

5-
A week or two ago, we got our annual form letter from the church detailing our giving for the year for tax purposes. This week, we got a form letter from Father saying that a form letter was not enough to express his gratitude for our support of the church...so, he apologized for the impersonality of a form letter with...another form letter!

6-
The girls get to go stay with Grandma tonight and tomorrow, as I am heading up to a women's retreat with my SIL. Then hubby will pick them up tomorrow evening, and on Sunday, I'll be coming home from the retreat, and MIL and FIL will be leaving for their cruise to Mexico.

7-
Okay, I'll fess up one of the items I was asking for prayers about now...This week I had my first appointment with a bariatric surgeon, and all is looking like it should work out. They see me as an excellent candidate for Adjustable Gastric Band surgery, and I fit our insurance company's specifications for qualifying. So, at this point, I am working on losing 20 lbs and trying to get my exercise up to 5-7 days per week. I'll have an appointment with the dietitian next month, and my psychological evaluation in March. I'm also waiting for the all clear on the insurance front, and have been told to be "very careful" in terms of not getting pregnant, because they (obviously!) will not do the surgery if I'm pregnant. The doc told me one story of a woman who was there on her surgery day, and had a pregnancy test come back positive...obviously, she wasn't able to have her surgery...so really strict NFP rules, here we come!

More quick takes at Jen's!

I may pay for this later

Since I have apparently figured out how to embed YouTube videos on here, I'll go ahead and post one that MM was on the fence about whether to post or not. Don't get me wrong: it's completely wholesome, but it references a part of pop culture that not everybody appreciates, to say the least.

But MM ain't here today! ;-) And, anyway, it really IS wholesome (and FUNNY!).

"And if you're Catholic, there's even mooore." ROTFL

Matt Maher

Back in September, MM and I saw Matt Maher on EWTN's "Life on the Rock," and he made such an impression on me that I immediately asked for the new album he was promoting for the birthday I had coming up in October. I've really enjoyed it since then, and am a little amazed at the niche he-a very devout Catholic-has carved out in the overwhelmingly Protestant Christian music industry.

Anyway, now that we can actually watch streaming videos on our computer, I thought I'd post an overview of Maher's most recent album from the record label. *crossing my fingers this works!*

Would it be insensitive to say...

that I, on the other hand, am having a pretty good day? At the very least, it kind of reminds me of the old statistic about how getting married massively extends the lifespan of the average man, but somewhat shortens the lifespan of the average woman. At least, I think that's what the old statistic says... I'm a little bit fuzzy on it, now.

To be fair, I just talked to MM on the phone, and she seems to be having a better day. She made my mom listen to Dave Ramsey with her, which I find fairly funny. Still pretty hectic, but better. Hopefully the girls (and my sister and mother) will behave relatively well at the lecture they are attending tonight. Otherwise, the final good/bad tally for the day may be in some question.

I have to say I am enjoying the first uninterrupted and unscheduled time I've had to marvel at our new 256K internet connection. I'm affraid I've misplaced a lot of blame for computer headaches the last couple of years with our PC itself, when it mostly had to do with us just being too cheap to upgrade (admittedly, MM's dad's gift to us of more RAM not too long ago helped a lot, too).

Sadly, though, I can only torment my friends on Facebook so much without getting pretty bored. Same thing goes with watching the tube. So, I have to say that I'm missing MM and the girls pretty badly. A little peace and quiet is nice once in a while, but the chaos is what gives my life purpose, I guess.

Correction: I have since been informed that we actually now have 512K, not 256. As you can see, I was thoroughly involved in the research and planning of this switch. ;-)

Not having a good day...

I couldn't get dressed this morning because I needed to wash and dry a load of laundry (I needed underwear...)

While trying to put some podcasts on our IPod for our last minute whirlwind trip to see Matthew Kelly speak (plus go to a bunch of doctors appointments on Tuesday) it turns out our IPod is corrupted.

Hubby and I thought he was supposed to go back to work at 12:30, but found out that he is actually supposed to be back at noon (we found this out at 11:25 when I was defrosting hamburger for today's lunch...)

AND, I caught one of my oven mitts on fire while cooking...

Hopefully the rest of the day goes better!

Quick Takes Friday- High Speed Edition

1-

I have doubled my productivity since getting our DSL equipment installed yesterday...okay, maybe not PRODUCTIVITY...but at least all of my time wasting on the Internet takes less time now!

2-

I'm much more excited about podcasts now that I was before. We used to download a podcast called "Pray as you go" by the Jesuits, but each week we'd have to leave our dial up connected all night long to get five podcasts for the week, and I doubt that any of them are longer than 10 minutes. I downloaded next week's podcasts yesterday, and it took me a whopping 10-15 minutes to download them all...Even the slowest DSL is amazingly fast for me!

3-

Charlotte is sick again...I'm supposed to take her back into the doc next week to check on her ears...at the last appointment he said that she either was just getting over an ear infection, or just getting one. We didn't do antibiotics since there was a good chance she was getting over one, but now her fever and cough are back (after almost 2 weeks of very few problems). Poor kid!

4-

Yesterday we got done with school before 10:30 am, which is a record as of late...basically, I've been doing well if we start school before nap time. Hopefully today I will follow the same plan and get school done before lunch...then, of course, I have another week of school to plan out.

5-

Besides the faster Internet connection getting me going faster in the morning (I'm sure I'm not the only one that says "just ONE more blog, THEN I'll get ready..." more than once a morning!) I took Danielle Bean's advice about night showering...I never thought it would work for me, with my horrible curly hair, but I've done it twice now (which is more than I usually do in a year...I only have showered at night before if I had to spend the evening around smokers...) and have found that if I braid my hair after my shower and sleep on the braid, my hair actually looks pretty good (for my hair anyway!)

6-

Eva has recently started to get things off the top of the TV cabinet (I can only assume that she stands on a basket and stretches to reach things) and out of child proofed cabinets (to get things for her sister, of course). Not that I am surprised that she CAN do these things, it just is a little strange that this is the first she HAS done these things...I've had to remind her that when I put toys in a child proofed cabinet, that means that I want to control access to it...the dumb "Froggy book" (LeapPad) that she got out is now confiscated and in my room because the girls were driving me nuts with fighting over it.

7-

Speaking of the LeapPad book...don't you HATE it when well meaning people get your kids toys that are way too old for them? The LeapPad would have been an awesome gift for Eva this year, but she actually got it from my parents when she was 2...not a good age for that sort of thing. Of course, this is not limited to my side of the family...one time the girls went shopping with hubby's parents, and somehow my FIL ended up taking them to pick out toys (because, to grandparents, every time you go shopping is a time for a new toy!) and Charlotte got a Dora doll that said ages 3+ (which was fine, because I do supervise my kids with toys...she might have still been under a year, but at least was significantly under 2), and Eva got a kids ATM that said ages 7+...eventually, we had to smash the dumb thing to get her money out because the stupid thing was too complicated for us once the instruction booklet got lost (sorry MIL, it had to be done!) A few times Eva has asked about it, and we had to give her some story about giving it away (well, the trash guys COULD have taken it out of the trash, how would I know?)

More quick takes over at Jen's, as usual!

Budgeting, email and taxes...oh my!

I am so completely tired of sitting in front of the computer getting these three things done (so naturally, I am sitting in front of the computer blogging about how tired of these I am!)

Hubby's hours have been cut back little by little over the last several months, and we keep thinking that they'll start going back up soon...so we've just been trying to go with the flow. Well, we got his pay stub for this Friday, and were a little sad to see the number. But, it covers all our bills (although we did have to put off contributing to Charlotte's college fund for a month), so we're not complaining. Hubby did, however, apply for a part time second job (evenings and weekends) so we would appreciate any prayers about that situation.

We also have been planning on getting high speed Internet for my 30th birthday in August...so I was researching prices (after being told by the church organist that she had tried to call me for several days because she needed a cantor for a funeral, and that she finally gave up and got her daughter's doctor to allow her off bed rest for preeclampsia for the funeral...) and found out that all of the places that provide high speed Internet out here require a one year contract. Since we are REALLY not sure if we will be here much longer than a year (particularly if hubby's hours keep getting cut) we decided to go ahead and get high speed now...so starting Friday, I'll be able to do all sorts of things on the computer I never have before (I can watch my first YouTube video!) So, I don't know if that was a good or bad decision, but I guess I'm locked into paying for a year...

Of course, with changing ISPs, we also have to change our e-mail address...I didn't actually realize how many places I would need to change our e-mail until I started going through our inbox and trash can in Outlook...I mean, just little things like Seton Home, Blogger, CCL, ITunes, banks, mortgage, investment accounts...and on and on and on...

I also started working on taxes, and decided to try the Turbo Tax free edition (as suggested by Christine R...thanks!) and it is working out great so far (I still need the appropriate documentation from our banks, but other than that I'm all set!) and it is looking like we will be getting back a good chunk of change, and are going to owe the state under $200 (MUCH better than the almost $500 we owed last year!)

Well, I should probably stop procrastinating and get back to everything I am working on! Hopefully I'll get a chunk of it all done before nap time is over!

My girls are goofy...

So, a while back, we were watching something recorded on our DVR because two things were recording. When it finished, the TV went back to the PBS station, where one of the shows recording had just finished...there was some sort of cooking show on, and Eva begged to watch it. I figured that cooking shows are generally pretty safe, so I agreed to let her watch it.

Well, the show (which I really don't have any objections to, other than I find the woman a little overly cheerful) was Katie Brown Workshop...and Eva LOVED it...so, I ended up finding it on the TV and recording the episodes. Now the girls are constantly asking to watch Katie Brown (even Charlotte can say "Kay-ee Bwown!"

Also, on Friday afternoon, I had to take the girls up to the church to meet with the organist because I was a cantor for Mass this weekend. So, when we are leaving I pulled out my new cell phone to check the time. Eva said "Mommy, you have a new phone!" and I of course responded that yes, I do have a new phone. Then she said, "and we have a new car!" (of course, it is a 1995 Olds, but yes, it is new to us) and I said that yes we do have a new car. So, she said "We have A LOT of new things!", and I decided to tease her a little bit. I said "yes, we do have a lot of new things...should we get a new Eva?" and she said "No! Cause I am the Eva that was in your tummy!", so I said "should we get a new Charlotte?" and Eva again shouted "No! Cause Charlotte is the Charlotte that was in your tummy!" (Charlotte is also shouting no at me at this point). So, I said, "Oh, okay...should we get a new daddy?" and Eva responded "Yes!" (Charlotte still voted no)...

We've decided to keep the current daddy after all...