Arabella Joy has arrived!

Her birth announcement website is at: http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/a/arabellajoy/
and a photo album can be found here. (You don't have to be a Facebook Member to enjoy the album.)

Ups and Downs

So my Dad was doing great in rehab. He walked 10 feet, he can wheel himself around the therapy room in his wheel chair. He could put his shoe on by himself. And he was talking up a storm.

Tuesday morning, they transferred him back to the hospital to insert the PEG tube in his stomach to get the tube out of his nose that was bothering him so much. He went through the surgery without a problem, but then they took him back to the rehab hospital. Apparently, his digestive process was still slow from the anesthesia, and they gave him a full feeding soon after he arrived, through the PEG tube. He was feeling great, went outside to enjoy the warm, sunny day and a visit with the family - when he got sick to his stomach, and started throwing up.

They got him back to his room, where it continued, and apparently he aspirated. By that night, he had spiked a temp of 102.7, his blood pressure dropped, and he became unresponsive.

They took him straight back to Emergency. We thought that was it. Did God allow him to survive a stroke and overcome so much trauma only to die from something this trivial? Why? He was doing so well! And it all could have been avoided if someone had been paying attention.

So here we are on Friday. He's still in the hospital (not rehab) with aspiration pneumonia in both lungs. His temp has been up and down, his blood pressure has been up and down. His heart rate is irregular. His lungs are very moist and the audible wheezing can be heard all over.

Until last night... we summoned the prayer warriors again and took him before the throne of God. The Holy Spirit was with us, interceding on his behalf (Romans 8:26). The evening report from his nurse was "He is doing SO much better! His vitals are good - his lungs sound much clearer!" Praise the Lord!

This morning's report was similar. The only thing they are worried about now is that his heartbeat is still irregular and they're not sure why. They thought low potassium, but it's fine. He's sleeping a lot, which is good, to let his body heal.

We're still not clear of the woods, but we are starting to see a light at the edge of them again...

Life Gets in the Way!

I fully intended to post more information about my Once a Month Cooking, but you know what they say ... Stuff Happens!

And boy has it ever!

My cousin has taken to calling me Job. Remember him? The guy in the Bible that had a "Series of Unfortunate Events"?

I will be blogging more about what God has taught me through my recent trials, but I just wanted to apologize for not getting the OAMC posts up and give you a summary of what my life has been like lately...

On Friday, Aug. 28th (which was only 3 weeks ago, but it has been the longest 3 weeks of my life!) my sister called to tell me that our other sister's husband had passed away at the age of 47! I jumped in the car and made the 4 hour trip to her house to spend the night with her, along with my other sister, my Mom and my niece.

Saturday, Aug. 29th - I came back home to get clothes and things prepared for the funeral home. I needed to find suitable clothes/socks/shoes for 7 kids to wear, plus hubby and me (maternity, of course!) I also volunteered to handle the funeral luncheon and went shopping to buy food for 50+ people.

Sunday, Aug. 30th - Prepared some food which could be made ahead of time and thanked God that I had meals in the freezer for my family! Monday I would be going to my parents' house to start cooking, and then to the hall where the luncheon would be to set up tables, etc. My oldest daughter is going with me, but the other 6 will stay home with DH until Monday evening.

Monday, Aug. 31st - While having my morning coffee before running out the door, my sister called to say that my Dad appeared to be having a stroke and they had called an ambulance. They were right. They rushed him to a local hospital where they said his condition was too critical for them to handle, and they put him on a helicopter and Life Flighted him to Cleveland Clinic. My daughter and I jumped in the car (yes, the one that has broken down twice already) and headed for Cleveland.

Three miles from the exit for Cleveland Clinic, we hear a loud bang, and something seems to be dragging. I pull off to the left on a 5 lane highway with cars zipping past, get my 6 month pregnant, bulging belly out of the car, and on to my hands and knees to look under it. Nothing is hanging down, but the tire is not vertical - it's diagonal - the top is leaning in and the bottom is leaning out...

I hadn't even had time to pray to ask for help when God sent an "angel" in the form of a big guy named Fred to help us. He worked for ODOT and his job was to keep the lanes clear. He opened the trunk (full of groceries!) and checked the strut and informed me that the center bolt was missing. He asked where I was headed. I told him Cleveland Clinic and told him about my Dad. He said, "I think we can make it. I'll follow you!" And he did - right to the parking garage.

DH called AAA and the car was towed and fixed while I sat in intensive care with my Dad.

Tuesday, Sept. 1 - My brother in law's funeral was scheduled for 10 am. My mom and my other sister, my daughter and I sat by my Dad's bedside while other family members went to the funeral. We wanted so much to be there and for our sister to be with us, but it just wasn't possible. My sister buried her husband and got in the car and came straight to Cleveland. So sad...

Wed. Sept. 2 - Fri. Sept. 4 - We continued taking turns sitting with Daddy and staying with Mother. There were ups and downs and things were still touch and go. We knew we could still lose him at any time.

Friday, Sept. 4th - Cleveland Clinic informed us that they were transferring Daddy to a local rehab hospital about 15 minutes from his home. While we were waiting for the rehab hospital to call to say that he had arrived, I got a phone call from my husband to let me know that his aunt had been taken to Emergency. She died minutes later...

We went to the Rehab Hospital to check on my Dad. He looked so much worse than he had before...

Saturday, Sept. 5th - Headed home to prepare for the next funeral. I drove my Mom's car since there was no way I was going to get back into the car I had now broken down in 3X! Half way through the 2 hour drive home, I stopped at a red light, heard squealing, smelled rubber and smoke poured out from under the hood. I got into a parking lot and called DH. An hour later he arrived to find that it wasn't the belt as I had suspected, but the casing on the AC compressor. I followed him home in the van while he drove the car.

As I walked up the steps onto the porch at home, my phone rang. They were taking my Dad back to Emergency! Aghh!! Everything checked out and they took him back to the Rehab Hospital that night. It was in those hours of waiting that God grabbed me by the shoulders, shook me gently and got me to focus on him. He gave me a hug in the form of a devotional by Max Lucado that popped into my email box called "I'm sinking fast". I will blog about this later...

Sunday, Sept. 6th, I went to church and cried through the sermon. My pastor and friends annointed me and prayed for me. I felt peace.

Monday - present: I stayed home to get the kids caught up with the school we had missed in the midst of our crisis'. There were enough family members at home to cover hospital visits and staying with my Mom. DH insisted that I had had enough stress already and so he took his Mom to her sister's funeral and I stayed home with the kids and handled barn chores in his absence.

My Dad is doing well. In fact, I got to talk to him on the phone last night! My sister called from the hospital and put the phone to his ear and he listened and responded. He spoke sentences yesterday for the first time since his stroke.

I am heading back out to Ohio tomorrow to take my shift for a couple days. I plan to do my shopping and cooking the end of this week, so I'll try to get back to my Once a month cooking blogging soon.

Is life still stressful? Yes. Could things change at any minute? Yes. But I have learned that we need to focus on the Lord - just as Peter did when he was walking on the water and the storms raged around him. When he started sinking, he needed to refocus. This is just one of the lessons I've learned lately. More next time...

Once a Month Cooking!

It's been many years since I heard a Focus on the Family broadcast about Once a Month Cooking. Mary Beth Lagerborg and Mimi Wilson were on the program talking about their new book and their cooking plan that would allow you to spend two days a month cooking enough meals to put in the freezer to last the month. It sounded like a pretty ambitious plan, but I thought I would give it a try.

As a homeschooling Stay at Home Mom of young children, it made sense to have dinner ready each day without having to drag out the food processor and tons of pots and pans to get dinner on the table. Not to mention cleaning it all up after the meal!

I bought the book, and set to work. It fit my personality to a T. I am a planner - a list maker - an organizer. I made my menu, and then my shopping list and a "to do" list, then I set to work.
First, I went grocery shopping and bought everything on my list. The next day, I got up early and got to work. I spent the day cooking, and I'm not going to kid you. It was a loooooong day! But also, very satisfying. The next day, I finished up the meals I had not gotten done the day before, and I actually DID have enough meals in the freezer to last for two weeks! (I started small and worked up to a month.)

That was back when we had two children and 4 servings worked for us. Now that #8 is on the way, I've adjusted all my recipes to serve 12. Yes, it takes two shoppers and two shopping carts now, but actually, it doesn't take any longer to make 12 servings than it does 4, so it still only takes two days!

What are the benefits?

1) It's much cheaper! Usually (though you still need to do the math) it's cheaper to buy larger packages or buy in bulk. When you are doing all the cooking at once, nothing is wasted and you can use the big bulk package in two days before it spoils. In the months when I am too busy to do OAMC, I can't believe how much more $$ we spend on groceries! When you are running to the market every day or two to buy ingredients for the next couple of meals, it gets VERY expensive (whether you are shopping for one or 10!)

2) It's a time saver! Since I am homeschooling five of my seven children, trying to work part time, busy with church activities and taking kids to youth group and Awana and Girl Scouts, etc. through the week, it just makes sense to find as many time savers as I can. Now, I simply look at the calendar on the fridge, see what's for dinner today, take it out of the freezer to thaw and go about my day. At dinner time, I simply follow the directions on the bag or dish for heating it up, and throw together a couple things to go with it.

3) It reduces cleaning time! Two days a month, I get out my food processor. I chop a whole bag of onions at one time, then I chop my green peppers, slice my celery and mushrooms, etc. Then I wash it out and put it away. As I finish a recipe, I wash out my pot and use it again for the next recipe. When I'm done for the month, everything is cleaned up and put away until the next month. During the month, my cleanup consists of whatever pot or dish I use to heat up the meal. That's it! No dragging everything out everyday and leaving a sink full of dishes to be washed after the meal! Yay!

4) It makes Mama happy and reduces stress! And when Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy! ;) It takes me about 10 minutes a day to get a meal on the table (not counting heating time). Otherwise, it can take me over an hour to get a meal ready. This leaves more time to rest, relax and hang out with the kids and hubby! I'm not asking Mike "Any ideas for dinner?", then making a mad dash for the store to buy ingredients. Instead, I am enjoying my time and doing the things I want to do.

I'm sure there are many more reasons, but these are enough for me. I HATE when I don't get it done. The months when it doesn't happen are so much more stressful and expensive than when we do!

Anyway, we've come a long way in our OAMC journey. I now teach classes at women's retreats about saving money at the grocery store and Once a month cooking.

I just finished my meals for the month and I mentioned it on Facebook. A couple of my friends are interested in what I do, so I told them I would blog about it. In the next few posts, I'll cover the process, my menu and some recipes. In the meantime, I highly recommend the book, Once a Month Cooking. Mimi and Mary Beth have a new version out and it's available everywhere. It covers the plan and gives several recipes that freeze well.

I hope this was helpful to someone. Stay tuned...

Back to School and Potty Training...

All the kids have been successfully enrolled in their Cyber classes for the Fall and we're just waiting for the boxes of books and supplies to come pouring in... It's like Christmas in August when that happens! You'd never think kids would be so excited over a Math Text Book, but it happens here!
I'll take some pictures for proof and post them here.

Abby has decided (with some patient prodding) that she is a "big dirl" and ready to be done with diapers. The arrangement is that she gets 1 gummy bear for #1, and 2 gummy bears for #2. lol
She's doing very well. Now maybe we'll get a break from diapers, at least until December! :)

Now we just have to work on the modesty issue. She's so happy about being a big girl that she feels the need to share the news with everyone she sees. She pulls her dress up and says, "See my unnerware?" :) SOME day, we'll get them all raised! (Maybe!)

Name Poll, Barf Bugs and the stuff of life

First off, thanks to all of you who voted in the Baby Name Poll. We have decided to combine two of the middle names on the list to come up with the name for our baby. :) And we'll tell you what that name is when she is born! LOL (Sorry)

THE EVIL BARF BUG!

Life has been interesting here lately. One Wednesday morning a few weeks ago, I was doing laundry, and suddenly felt very sick to my stomach. I was sick (and it wasn't morning sickness!) All that day I was weak and dizzy and felt miserable.

That night, our oldest son was up all night throwing up and - well, experiencing other gastrointestinal ailments. The next day he had a high fever and was in bed all day.

A couple days later, our youngest daughter started throwing up. She couldn't even keep down a sip of water or ice chips. Then the fever came and the diarrhea lasted two weeks!

My friend Kelli, and two of her sons arrived by plane from Texas a couple days later. We felt so bad that they were breathing our air, but we couldn't avoid the inevitable!

Then, there was a lull. No one else got sick. We decided to risk taking our friends to Niagara Falls on Friday. We pulled in the parking lot, got out of the van and Son #2 threw up in the parking lot! He had a fever, and I was so thankful they sell Children's Tylenol in the gift shop (it was an arm and a leg, but it was there!)

We got through the day and had fun (except for the diaper blow outs from the lingering bug... I only had to buy new clothes once! ;)

We hadn't eaten dinner, so decided to stop in Hamburg, NY on the way home to eat at Applebee's. No sooner had we been seated, that Kelli's baby was sick - all over her! (If you've never been pregnant and been thrown up on, you have no idea how horrible this is!) She was so nauseated from the smell that she was nearly sick herself. Mike left and took her and her baby and our youngest who was asleep at this point, to go find a Walmart to buy new clothes, while I stayed with 7 kids at Applebee's. Did you know that not ALL Walmarts are open 24 hours? Not even the 2 they were able to find! (It was a long ride home!)

Her little one was sick all night and over the next several days while various of our other kids started getting various symptoms of this bug (which we had by then determined was a Rotavirus or some such - not a typical 24 hour bug!)

We are now into the 3rd week of this and there are still lingering symptoms... UGH!

Kelli went home and it's going through her family as well. What a mess!

BACK TO SCHOOL - ALREADY?

In the meantime, we've been busy getting ready for our new school year. The kids are whining, "Where'd the Summer go? It CAN'T be time to start school already!", but there is an air of excitement as I bring home school supplies and they put them on the shelves in the school closet. We've decided to take a break from K12 this year and we're doing a year of Calvert to see how it goes.

I will be teaching 1st, 4th, 8th and 10th grade this year and as of December, I will have a newborn and 2 preschoolers to take care of as well! K12 is so time intensive that we just felt we needed to do something different this year. We'll reassess at the end of the year and see where we'll go in the future.

Yesterday, I bought each of the kids their own milk crate (in their own color) to keep their school books and supplies in. They fit nicely under the church pew at the dining room table, so they can have easy access to them as needed.

Our two oldest will be doing Virtual Classroom and will be at their own desks, but I'll be spending more time with the 1st and 4th graders at the dining room table.

Sorry this post is so long, but it's been awhile since I posted anything.

In other news, we are facing the hottest weekend we've had so far this Summer (it's 84 already today) and very muggy. We're in the midst of hay bailing - you have to make hay when the sun shines.

Stay tuned for the next chapter in "the stuff of life"... :)

Half Way there- and still nameless!

We're 20 weeks pregnant today, which means we've hit the half way point of the pregnancy. It also means that I could be holding our "Little Miss" in 20 weeks from now. (Wow! Time flies when you're not puking every day - all day!) lol

Thanks to all of you who have voted in our name poll. Unfortunately, we're no closer to having this little one named than we were before. Dad looked at the list and gave me "the look". (If you're married, you know the one I mean. lol)

The kids all have their opinions, too, of which name it should be. But still, nothing has just jumped out and said, "Yep, that's it!" Like it has for all the other kids (except Jeffrey who was named the night he was born about 3 am!)

Isn't it funny how much our impression of a name is based solely on others we know with that name? Someone suggested the name Charlotte with the nickname "Lotty". Well, I know a Lotty. She is the ex-wife of a friend and not someone I would want to name a child after. lol Name after name, my mind goes back to my school days and I associate the name with kids I knew. (sigh)

Jeffrey wants to name her Daisy (after a character in his Mario Bros. game). Abby wants to name her "Dora the Exploder" (which is what she thinks they are saying on Dora). lol Neither of those names are on the family list. ;)

My sister, Diana Lynne - thinks we should name her "Lynnie". (Ack!) Reminds me of Lennie and Squiggy on Laverne and Shirley! Several friends have suggested "Sophia" - and in my mind's eye, I see a short little outspoken, opinionated Italian lady on Golden Girls (which I love - but THAT's Sophia. lol)

My Mother likes Sarah, but prefers Kaitlin (which is also not on our list). And as my mother in law is named Margaret, and none of our girls are named after MY Mom, Margaret is not high on HER list. lol

I just love, love, love Arabella, because that was my great, great Aunt's name. She was the godliest woman who ever lived. She lived and died praising the Lord. I am so blessed to have recently gotten a copy of her diary from two years of her life. How incredible to get inside her thoughts and really get to know her (because she died when I was too little to know her). Those who did know her all have nothing but respect and love for her. AND, ironically, Arabella means "Prayerful" which is so fitting. And the nickname, "Bella" means "Beautiful". (Though we DO have a cow named Bella, so that's not going over so well - it's also the name my niece has given her Mini Cooper. lol)

I guess Arabella is one of those names that just has to grow on you. It has certainly grown on me, but not many people who hear it the first time go, "Ooh, that's pretty!" Most give me "that look". lol

I think Evangeline is pretty, and while the kids initially didn't like it, after we watched Nanny McPhee Saturday, they do like it better - but still don't want to name their sister that. lol

SO, for now, I'll just continue to give DH little talks about Arabella and see if it doesn't begin to grow on him, too. ;) And if not, maybe I'll be driving down the road one day and see a name on a sign that clicks... I'll keep ya posted.

But for now, this child shall remain "nameless". ;D

And the Girls have it!

The score is now 5-3, in favor of the girls.

Yes, this little one is a girl (considering that the sonogram pics of the "nether regions" showed nothing protruding lol). She had her little hand between her legs in this shot. See her little fingers? The large black circle is her bladder.

Praise God for a very active little wiggling healthy baby. What a joy to see that little heart beating at 152 beats per minute. She waved her little hand at us as if to say, "HI Mom and Dad! - Here I am!"

Of course, we had chosen 1 name for the baby - Andrew Steven. Obviously, that will no longer be appropriate.

So the Name Game continues. And the challenge as well.

We have given all of our daughters old fashioned, elegant names. They all have 3 or 4 syllables, but they have shortened forms of their names as nicknames. And the nicknames all end with a "long e" sound.

So the name at the top of my list is Sarah. Sarah is a nice, old fashioned, elegant name. There are several Sarahs in my family tree. In fact, it is the name of two of my great grandmothers.

BUT, as my other daughters pointed out - it's only 2 syllables and can not be shortened to anything that ends with a long e - Sar-E? Nope.

This leaves us with the dilemma - do we just go with Sarah and let her be different? Or do we keep looking?

I've asked friends and family, the girls in my Life Book Challenge at Heritage Scrap, and even my friends on Facebook. I've gotten suggestions for everything from Evangeline (which my niece continues to call my belly) to Esmerelda. Alexandra to Vivian. But NOTHING clicks. With my others, as soon as I heard the name, I knew that was "it". That hasn't happened. Yet.

I think I'll spend the day watching Jane Austin movies for inspiration. Or Lord of the Rings. Yes, Arwen Galadriel Pasterik. That sounds just about right.

NOT :D

The Saga continues until...Next Week

We used to be able to walk into out patient and have a sonogram, but apparently that's not the case anymore. Sooooo, I have an appointment for a sonogram next Wednesday. I'll be 18 weeks, so we should be able to tell quite a lot at that time (like whether the boy/girl score in our family will be evened or not. The score now stands at 4 girls and 3 boys).

Sometimes I wonder what God is thinking when he hears our family prayers. He has 3 girls and 1 little boy (who is in danger of losing his "baby son" status) praying fervently for the baby to be a girl. And there are two boys, praying equally as hard for a brother. He also has a little 2 year old princess praying for "both". lol

Of course we know that God knew this little one before it was even formed in the womb, so the gender question was determined long ago before the foundations of the world, but it is funny to hear them "letting their requests be made known".

I'm sure we'll be having the discussion about why God chose to answer the prayers of one group over the other in the coming days. Until then, we will just praise God for a healthy baby - whatever it may be...

161 Days...

That's how many days are left before this little one's due date. I'm 17 weeks pregnant today. I have a feeling that I have an anterior placenta which means that it's at the front of my belly instead of at my back. I had this with Miss Abigail, too, and it prevented me from feeling as much kicking and movement as I usually do.

We should be able to confirm this this week as we go in for a sonogram and get to see the little person who is being formed in that "secret place". (Psalm 139:15)

More to come...

I know, I know...I'm a slouch...

slouch (n) - a lazy, inept, or inefficient person.

So I made a New Year's Resolution to keep up with my blog and well, let's just say it hasn't gone so well. I had good intentions - REALLY!

As you can see from my last post, the year got off to an - interesting - start. And then it got even more interesting...

Let me first give you a little bit of background. After our seventh child was born, I got pregnant again, and had a miscarriage at 9 weeks on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, 2007. At the end of February, 2008, I conceived again, but again at 9 weeks, the spotting began. We went for a sonogram and were shocked to find that I had what is medically referred to as a "blighted ovum". When the egg is fertilized and begins to divide, it divides into 3 parts: 1 part becomes the placenta, 1 part becomes the sac, and 1 part becomes the baby. With a blighted ovum, the sac and placenta develop, but the baby doesn't. The sonogram showed an empty sac, while the placenta and sac had developed as in a normal pregnancy. I had all the pregnancy symptoms, because as far as my body knew, I was pregnant - but there was no baby.

We went to my niece's wedding in Connecticut, not knowing when the miscarriage would happen. It was inevitable once my body figured out that there was no baby. The spotting had already started, but we made the decision to go anyway. I won't go into the gory details, except to say that a public rest area, hours from home, is not the best place to have a miscarriage.

We were devastated, to say the least. For months, we cried out to God and sought healing for our pain and loss. And for months, we tried again to conceive - to no avail.

Eventually, we came to the realization that my womb was closed and that "7" truly was the number of completion for us. We finally were at peace with the idea that there would be no more children for us. I started gathering up baby clothes to sell or give away and we packed away the crib and high chair. I did some traveling (for the first time without a baby!) and started designing again - digital scrapbook kits. I haven't actually worked in graphic design since our third was a baby.

As I was "getting on with life" and busy homeschooling five kids, designing and just going day by day, a strange thing happened...I got pregnant!

For a couple weeks (at least), I was in shock! It was like going to someone's funeral, and then having them knock on your door a couple days later. I had mourned the loss of my "baby days", and here they were again. It was surreal!

But I was also skeptical. After four losses - two in a row - I wasn't sure this pregnancy wouldn't end the same way. I didn't want to accept the fact that I was pregnant, because that would mean acknowledging something I would have to give up. I didn't want to go through that pain and suffering again - of saying goodbye to my baby.

So for weeks, I tried to ignore it - but God has a way of grabbing us by the shoulders and shaking us. Let me just say that it is hard to ignore the fact that you are pregnant when you are throwing up constantly! I have NEVER been this sick with morning sickness - in 12 pregnancies! I've had nausea, but never have I been "sick" every day - all day. And the fatigue was incredible! When I wasn't barfing, I was sleeping.

I couldn't teach, I couldn't work, I couldn't cook (smelling meat cooking threw me into another barf binge!) All I could do was sleep - and be sick. And this went on until around the 13th week.

Week 9 was extremely difficult as I held my breath through the whole week, waiting for the spotting to start - it didn't.

Week 14 was also hard as my first miscarriage happened then - but the only thing that happened that week was an increase in the little kicks I had already started to feel.

I was 15 weeks on Monday. According to BabyCenter, here's what little #8 is looking like about now...

Hopefully, next week we'll have a sonogram and see what's going on in there.

All I can say is that God works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform. And it ain't over - 'til it's over... At some point in my life, I might finally learn to accept the fact that I am not and never was in control.

The Bible says in Jeremiah 1:5, ""Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart."

He knew that THIS baby was to be part of our lives at THIS time. He has a plan for this child's life and we are so excited to be a part of God's plan.

I will keep you posted as we go forward. Only about 25 weeks to go!

Oh, I forgot to mention that we are due on Dec. 7th - which is a day of gigantic proportions in this house. Our first child was due on Dec. 7th, 1993, and she came right on her due date, like a good little girl.

Our 3rd child was due on that day, but he took his time and came on Dec. 10th. (He's still the last to get up every morning and does everything in his own timing.)

Our 5th child wasn't due until Christmas Eve, but she decided that she wanted to be here in time to get her presents, so she was born on Tori's 9th birthday - Dec. 7th, 2002. (And yep, she's still very energetic and in a hurry to get wherever she wants to go!) So we shall see what happens this Dec. 7th.

In any case, 4 of our 8 children will have been due or born on December 7th. That's got to be some sort of record? :)

Stay tuned...

Bad Luck comes in 3s...

Back in high school, I broke my thumb playing volleyball. (Never cross your thumbs when hitting the ball!) No big. And I broke my middle toe on the hidden leg of my grandma's couch. (Don't buy a coach with a skirt that hides the legs.) And that was it. No broken arms or legs - nothing. I got through 40 years of life relatively break free.

Then... 2009 rolled around. The first week of January, I was carrying a box of old pictures and tripped over hubby's tool box, resulting in my little toe nail swiftly being removed, which I didn't notice right away due to the chunk that was also taken out of my toe. It still hurts, and I'm assuming it was broken. Break #1 of '09.

January 22, started out like any other day, until I started down the steps. My foot slipped on the 4th step, and I bounced down the next 8 steps on my tailbone. You never think about your coccyx until you break it. Break #2 of '09.

February 24, I stepped on a plastic bag someone had carelessly left on the kitchen floor, it slipped and I fell. In an attempt to catch myself, I put my hand out and took the brunt of the fall with my scaphoid bone. Hoping it was just a sprain I did nothing - until doing nothing was no longer an option. So I spent the morning at the doctor's office, then the x-ray department. The radiologist said the x-ray was negative. The doctor said scaphoid fractures don't usually show up right away. A medical website confirms this..."Often patients present with wrist pain following a fall and the x-ray does not immediately show damage to the scaphoid. Persistent pain and follow up x-rays can be required to correctly diagnose the condition" Another site agrees, saying, "If radiographs are negative despite clinical suspicion of a scaphoid fracture, the patient's wrist is immobilized and radiographs are repeated in 2 weeks. If plain films continue to be negative but clinical suspicion remains, further imaging should be pursued. Bone scan and computed tomography have been used with about equal accuracy to detect occult fractures."

So, we shall see. Considering my pocketbook is lighter to the tune of $300 ( which was a 40% discount off the original bill), I certainly hope I don't have to repeat it! In the meantime, I have a large chunk of plaster strapped to my arm, and my typing speed is no longer 120 wpm.

This morning, I asked God to assign any extra guardian angels to my case. I can use all the help I can get!

From Barbed Wire to the Rolling Stones

So my family took to making fun of my English dialect at lunch today - just because I said the word Winter without accentuating the "T". Sorry. Winter and Winner sound surprisingly similar to me. That led to the word Jaguar. Apparently, you're 'supposed' to pronounce it like Jag wahr or some such instead of Jag WIRE, like I say it. My 12 year old son said it's not Barbed Wire, but I contended that they actually are very similar, when you think about it. Barbed wire is pretty jagged. My husband had to agree and informed the kids that they always called thorns and brier bushes "jaggers" when he was a kid. Our 15 year old daughter said, "jaggers?" in that voice that only a 15 year old girl can produce. It's the magic teenaged girl voice and if you have or have ever had a teenaged daughter, you will know it. The one that is used to express, "That's stupid" regardless of what actual words are coming out of her mouth. ;) So apparently, she thought it was dumb to call briers "jaggers". That's when I chimed in, yeah, then there was Mick, but that's not a brier, it's a Rolling Stone - but he probably drives a Jag Wire. I think that's where we lost them. My husband and I got a chuckle out of it, while the children looked at each other, rolled their eyes and silently expressed their common belief that their parents had totally lost it. :D

Speaking of Common Beliefs, someone sent me a link to an article at NPR called "Thirty Things I Believe". Apparently they are posting several stories in the "This I Believe" category. This particular list was written by a seven year old boy. Smart kid! I have to say that I agree with just about all of them. (There's that one about everyone should get up early that I'm not so sure about. ;) ) It would be worthwhile, I think, if we all sat down and wrote 30 things we believe. Food for Thought. So #1 on my list is: I believe we should all take time to think about what we believe. ;)

4 years ago tonight

I can say that I know with absolute certainty what I was doing four years ago tonight. I was 40 weeks pregnant with my sixth child. It was my due date and I didn't feel like much was going on. In fact, I was just getting ready to go to bed when I decided to get in the hot tub for a few minutes to relax before bed. Mike was in the next room, talking to my sister on the phone, and suddenly something happened that let me know that maybe I wouldn't be going to bed any time soon. I certainly wouldn't have believed with any level of confidence that I would be holding my baby 45 minutes later, but that's exactly what happened!

About a half hour later, I asked my oldest daughter to call the midwife and let her know that I was in labor. Knowing that she and her assistant were a half hour away, and they would need to get their supplies and things loaded up before taking off, I wanted to give them plenty of time to get here. Ten minutes later, I was pushing, and in five minutes, I was holding my precious little one! Tori called the midwife back and said, "He's here!" She had just gotten her car loaded and was ready to leave.

So the midwives arrived about 45 minutes after Jeffrey did. They checked us both out and cleaned up and got us into bed. Mike and I lay awake long into the night, with our precious gift between us talking about what his name should be. By about 3 am, we had decided on Jeffrey, meaning "Peaceful", because that's the way his birth was. His middle name is David, which means "beloved".

To this day, our Jeffrey is calm and peaceful - laid back and happy. And now he's four. He spent the day playing with his new Mario game on his brother's Nintendo DS. He wanted hamburgers and french fries for lunch, and right now, just as he was four years ago, he's peacefully sleeping. I love that little guy. This morning, he came in our room and climbed in the bed. I told him, "Happy Birthday" and asked him if I could still call him "Sweet Baby Son", even though he's four now. He said I could. I asked if I could call him that when he's twenty. He said, "yes". "How about forty?" "You can call me that forever, Mom." And I probably will. :)

My funny Valentine

Emily is just the funniest little girl. I don't know how I'm expected to teach her when she has me cracking up all the time. It's fun watching things click for her. The other day in math she had to practice writing the number 15. She was tracing the dotted sample when she proclaimed, "That's a great idea!" I asked her "what?" and she said. "They put a dotted line in the middle so you know where to start turning the round part of your five."

Next she told me that the half time show during the Super Bowl was 12 minutes long and it was already past her bedtime. Then she says, "What's a minute?" I told her, "We just learned about time last week. A minute is one time around the clock." Then she asks, "What if the clock is square?"

See why I enjoy teaching Emily? She cracks me up!

Back in Business!

Amazing things are happening lately, it seems! After joining the Creative Team at Heritage Scrap, I got up the courage to dust off my graphic designer hat that's been put away for a few years, and apply for a designer position. I am happy to announce that I am the newest member of the Design Team at Heritage Scrap!! I will be doing primarily word art and text related elements. My first two items are available in the store and I'm busily working on a new series for the Life Book Challenge I will be hosting.

My Design Blog is up and running, and I will be posting news there about my challenges and new products as well as FREEBIES! My Welcome Message describes how Victorian Rose Designs came to be. If you are a digital scrapbooker, please come on over and check it out. I will have a freebie posted as soon as it's in the store!

Here are my first two items:


I'm looking forward to this new venture!

Life Book Challenge and a Freebie

Well, I'm a few days into my job on the Creative Team at Heritage Scrap and I'm absolutely loving it. Right now I'm working on a Life Book Challenge that I'm going to be hosting. The start date is TBA, but we will be making a "This is your Life" book for ourselves or someone we love. The first step is interviewing and gathering resources from your subject. Then each week we will be scrapping the next page in the book. There will be prizes and lots of fun, and at the end of the challenge, you will have a completed Life Book. I can't wait to get started! Why don't you come join us?

If you are a scrapper and haven't stopped in to Heritage Scrap yet, run on over and check us out. Pop into the store and pick up this beautiful Dreaming Quick Page made by Lynn Griffin. All you have to do is pull in the whole page as one piece and layer it over your photo. Add some text and you have a quick and easy page completed.

And keep watching this space. I will have a major announcement very soon!

(This layout features my in-laws on their wedding day. And no, their last name is not "Something", but I changed it on the layout for security reasons. ;))

My new job!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I found a wonderful new Heritage Scrapbook site called Heritage Scrap. Heritage is my first love, and I fell in love with the site and its products. My heritage album caught the attention of the Creative Team Leader and I was invited to join the creative team!

I am so excited about this opportunity. My job is to create scrapbook pages using the products from the store and post them around the web to generate business for the store. What a job! I absolutely love it!

You can see my gallery at heritage scrap here.

This is a page I did using my new products. Credit goes to Lynn Griffin for use of her Winter Roses Kit.


Here's another page I did, called Sisters, and if you are into Digital Scrapbooking, you can download this kit free at Heritage Scrap. I used Kate McClellan's beautiful kit, M'Lady's Room.

I look forward to using the beautiful products at Heritage Scrap. They really have that vintage, heritage, Victorian feel that I love and they are so easy to work with. I told someone that my house looks like it came out of the shop at Heritage Scrap with all my roses decor. ;) Come on over and check us out!

Heritage Scrapping

In one of my heritage layouts, I say that my family is made up of storytellers. Story telling is something we do every time we get together. Daddy will always start to tell me a story, and Mother will say, "She's heard that a hundred times!"

Lately, I've been calling him, and when he starts to tell me a story, I'll pop open a notepad on the computer, and start typing in his story as he tells it. I know there are details I'll forget, and I want to get those stories on paper for future generations.

Genealogy is one of my greatest loves. I love finding history in MY history. I want to know the stories behind the names and dates. I want to know what happened in the dash. Linda Ellis wrote a poem called "The Dash" that begins this way...

I read of a man who stood to speak
At the funeral of a friend

He referred to the dates on her tombstone
From the beginning to the end

He noted that first came her date of her birth
And spoke the following date with tears,

But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years

For that dash represents all the time
That she spent alive on earth.

And now only those who loved her
Know what that little line is worth.

You can read the full text of the poem here.

So anyway, I'm beginning to realize that my job as one of the people charged with preserving our family pictures and stories is to learn all I can about those dashes and get those stories recorded. The best way I have found to do this is by scrapbooking heritage albums.

Last week, my cousin (and fellow genealogist and story keeper), JC, emailed me and said that one of our Dads' cousins was turning 85 and her family was having her a big birthday party. He asked if I could help out by putting together a scrapbook album telling her life story. Of course when someone starts a sentence, "Could you make a scrapbook..." the answer will 9 times out of 10 be "YES!".

JC went over to her house to interview her, wrote up her story and emailed it to me, along with scans of several pictures he got from her. Her daughter also emailed me pictures that she had, so I set to work. I had enough to get started by Tuesday or Wednesday, and the party was Saturday afternoon, so I had 3 or 4 days to scrap 85 years of Millie's life!

I emailed the last page to JC and Millie's daughter, Linda, at 5:00 am Saturday morning and then went to bed for a couple hours. JC got two copies of all 26 pages printed out and put into albums and Linda put them all in a power point presentation which she then presented at the party with over 100 attendees. Millie was thrilled and now we have those stories preserved. There are two paper copies in albums and Linda also has the .jpg images of the pages saved on CD for anyone else who wants a copy.

JC started this idea when his Dad (my Dad's brother) was diagnosed with alzheimers. His care providers told JC that a book about his life with pictures would help him with his memory. Even as he remembered less and less of the present, he would sit and look at his book and remember more of his past. When he passed away last Summer, JC presented the story of his life at his memorial service and it was such a beautiful way to honor his memory.

I plan to put together a book for my Dad to give him for his birthday in April. I made one for my Mom when she turned 70, but that was before I started scrapping digitally, so it was a LOT more work! :)

The cover page (as we have done with the others) will say "This is your life" (based on the old TV show). The outline starts with the person's birth and then covers major events in their life, ending with photos of their family, grandchildren, etc. It is such a neat thing to make and makes a wonderful gift for someone you love.

I was so excited to find a new website devoted entirely to Heritage Scrap. I hung out there this weekend and picked up some heritage kits. Here is a page I did with one of them. You can see my gallery at Heritage Scrap by clicking here. (Though it is just getting started. My other heritage pages are at Digital Scrapbook Place.)

The journaling on this page about my Mamaw's Calling Cards says: When Grace was a girl, she collected Victorian calling cards that had probably been her mother's. They hung in a frame in the room I slept in when I visited them as a girl. When she died, I asked for the framed cards and they now proudly hang in my home. One day, I carefully took them out of the frame and opened them. I was surprised to find names of friends and relatives who had come to call. What a blessing to have this piece of family history!

I look forward to doing many more Heritage Scrap pages!

Another Reader in the Family!

Emily started kindergarten this year and we started phonics at the beginning of the school year. We started with the sounds the letters make. Then she learned to put those letters together to make words. From there, we put words together to make sentences, and when we returned to school after the Christmas break, she started reading her phonics readers. Now she loves to read and can't get enough. I love to watch her face light up as she sounds out a word and then realizes what it is. What joy! I was a reader as I grew up in a home with no television and even now, I love to curl up with a good book - one that keeps me awake into the wee sma's when everyone else is snoring away. I love the fact that a good book can transport you to another time and another place every time you crack it open. In honor of Emily's journey into the world of reading, I made this Layout for her scrapbook. Special thanks to my good friend, Larry Rea for sharing the sparrow with me. He was so interested in what Emily was reading, he hopped right up on her shoulder to see what it was. :)
(Digital Kits by Nicole Young at Digital Scrapbook Place)

I made the Top 40!

Well, it was technically the Top 100 gallery views at Digital Scrapbook Place, but I was number 40 on the list! So what does that mean? Well, when I upload a scrapbook page to my gallery, others can browse through the gallery and click to view a layout closer and comment on it. The list on DSP's blog consists of the 100 layouts that have the highest number of views. This particular layout that I did (the one that made the list) was for the Digital Elite Team Competition. I didn't make the team, but apparently this was a layout that people liked. It has been viewed over 600 times and was even nominated in the Best Overall Category for the 2008 Scrappy Awards.
I realize it seems like I'm boasting, so let me say that Digital Scrapbook Place is the largest Digiscrapping site on the web with the most members (almost 145,000!). There is a LOT of competition, so making the digital elite team, winning layout of the day, being inducted to the Hall of Fame, winning a scrappy award or making lists like this one is extremely rare (at least for me!) I guess that's why I'm so proud of this honor. So given all that, let me say that as much as I enjoy scrapbooking, I know it is a God given talent, so I want to give Him the glory for my accomplishments. ;) So without further ado, here is the layout that made the list...


Click image to go to the gallery.
Thanks for indulging me in my boasting. We now return to our regularly scheduled humility. ;)

Aunt Arabelle

I'm always looking for new ways to stretch myself graphically. I got the idea for this layout from a page Nicole Young did where she put a reflection of her photo underneath it. I started playing to duplicate the effort, when my experimenting went in an unexpected direction. As is often the case, it headed right in the direction of Heritage. ;)

Aunt Arabelle was my great Grandfather's sister. Some of my "cousins" and I on our My Family site have been talking about Arabelle this week. I was a baby when she died, so I never met her personally, but everyone I have talked to who knew her, loved her.

Aunt Arabelle and Uncle Boone couldn't have children, but they loved them dearly. They always had sweets tucked away for when the kids visited them. They finally decided to adopt a son and daughter and give them a loving home. Unfortunately, their daughter Goldie died at the young age of 18 in a pregnancy related affliction, and their son Warner died in a hunting accident when he was in his early 20s.

Maybe it was those trials - of not being able to have children, then losing the ones they were blessed with, that strengthened their faith. Aunt Arabelle was the godliest woman in most people's memories. Uncle Boone became sick and she cared for him. Then toward the end of her life, she suffered heart problems and took to her bed. From there, she consistently praised the Lord. Every conversation was about God. She prayed fervently and her prayers were answered.

My aunt Geneva, Arabelle's niece, told us that one evening, the Lord impressed upon her and her husband to go stay with Aunt Arabelle and Uncle Boone. When they arrived, they knocked at the door, but there was no answer. Aunt Arabelle was hard of hearing and didn't hear them knocking. They went around the house and listened at the window, and there, they heard Aunt Arabelle praying "Lord, send someone to stay with us. Boone is awful bad sick." Little did she know that at that very moment, her prayer was being answered. Even in the midst of her prayer, there came a tapping at the window. There was Geneva and Ora, who had come to stay the night. They had brought some coffee and sandwiches and she was able to eat and get some much needed rest.

Even on her meager income, she tithed right off the top. She had so many material needs, but the Lord got His share first, and He blessed her for it. She taught us all a lesson about giving. It reminds me of the story in the Bible about the widow's mite.

While some may have considered her faith overboard, her sincerity proved that she was not a religious zealot, but someone who knew the Lord personally and walked with Him daily. A sign hung above the door of her outhouse that read "Jesus Saves". Maybe it served as a reminder to her that she was never alone.

The journaling on my scrapbook page (above) reads: Aunt Arabelle Porter Walker was a reflection of everything right and good. She was a godly woman who treated everyone with kindness and respect. She loved children, even though she couldn't have any of her own, and adopted a son & daughter & gave them a loving home. She didn't have much when it came to worldly goods, but she departed this life praising the Lord.

It is my hope and prayer that I would have, even a little of the character and faith that Aunt Arabelle had. She serves as a godly example to the generations that come behind her. May those who come behind us find us faithful!

I am reminded of a song recorded by Steve Green called Find us Faithful.

We're pilgrims on the journey
Of the narrow road
And those who've gone before us line the way
Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary
Their lives a stirring testament to God's sustaining grace

Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses
Let us run the race not only for the prize
But as those who've gone before us
Let us leave to those behind us
The heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives

CHORUS:
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful

After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone
And our children sift through all we've left behind
May the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover
Become the light that leads them to the road we each must find

REPEAT CHORUS

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful

It's just a little thing...

It's called a tailbone, or a sacrum, or a coccyx. One website says, "The coccyx provides slight support for the pelvic organs but actually is a bone of little use." So if it is so useless, why does it hurt so bad when you ride down the stairs on it?
That's exactly what I did yesterday. I've been walking down those stairs every morning for the last 6 1/2 years. Suddenly I forgot how... or something. My foot went flying off the step, I landed on my useless tailbone and bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce...down the stairs, I went.
A few seconds was all it took to realize that I was in excruciating pain. I did eventually recover my wits enough to get up, but my moaning and groaning brought all the kids rushing to the stairs from whatever room they were in in the house. My husband, who had been contentedly making coffee in the kitchen rushed in and asked the typical male question, "What happened?"
I tried to sit down, but screamed. I tried to lie down, but that didn't work either. I knelt by the couch and figured while I was on my knees, it wouldn't hurt to ask for some help.
I finally called my sister, who broke her tailbone last year. She assured me that if I hadn't broken mine, I had at least bruised it really badly. She told me it took six to eight weeks to heal. For days she couldn't sit down. She spent a month sitting on a donut.
I took large amounts of Tylenol and tried to find a position to lie in that would allow me to breathe without gasping. While I was trying to rest, my friend Kelli called. She had broken her tailbone years ago. She left me with the assurance, "You think it hurts now, wait until you wake up tomorrow! Whoa, are you going to be sore!"
She was right.
Thank God we got that waterbed last Christmas (see post from last Christmas. ;)
If you're going to bruise your tailbone, sleeping on a heated waterbed that conforms to your backside is probably about the most comfortable thing you can do. Of course, I still moaned every time I moved, but in between times wasn't so bad.
Today, I can actually sit down, as long as I lean forward. I think it must not be broken or I would have spent the day on all fours. But standing up after sitting for awhile is about as much fun as having toothpicks pounded under you finger nails.
Kelli and I have a scale that we rank our pain on. Between the two of us, we have 16 kids, so labor is one of those pains that ranks pretty high on the list. This pain comes in just above labor. (The only other thing we've experienced so far that is worse than labor is kidney stones.)
This morning, when I started down the stairs, I grabbed the railing and held on with both hands while navigating my descent very slowly. I made it all the way to the bottom, while still on my feet. That's progress.
Hopefully tomorrow will be even better.

Penguin Awareness Day and Why I talk funny!

Did you know today is Penguin Awareness Day???

Wear black and white to honor our little friends. Tuxedo optional. ;)

Did you know? Penguins are found in Antarctica, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Elsewhere, they are only found in zoos.

Q: What do Penguins have for lunch?
A: Icebergers.

Q: What do you call a penguin in the desert?
A: Lost.

Speaking of penguins, that word gets a lot of discussion around here. As some of you may know, my parents are from NE Kentucky, so I grew up hearing Appalachian English spoken in my home. (That's NOT what Jeff Foxworthy calls it, by the way. ;) So while I do not speak with a twang, there are certain words that I pronounce differently than my husband who grew up in NW PA and my children, who for some reason, learned to talk like their Dad.

Penguin is one of those words.

When it flows eloquently from my lips, it sounds like this: Ping-gwin.

My kids say, "Mom! It's not Ping Gwin - it's Pen gwin." This makes no sense to me at all!

So my daughter says - "How do you say pen?" I answer - "Pin".

"NO, that's like a safety pin or a stick pen - I mean the thing you write with."

"Oh, a pin."

"NO, it's pEn - with an E."

Honestly, I was an English major. I homeschool my children. I know how to SPELL pin and pen. I know the difference between a stick pin, a pig pen, an ink pen and a diaper pin. But to my ear, they all sound EXACTLY the same! Just as "to" and "too" are spelled differently but sound exactlythe same.

Ahh, frustration on their part. I just smile smugly knowing deep down that they all talk funny.

Language is something that interests me - especially dialects within the English language. So when my friends in college and later, my own flesh and blood started making fun of certain things I would say, I needed to understand why it was that everyone had an accent besides me. ;) That's when I discovered that there is actually a term for what we all speak "down home" and Appalachian English is what it's called. Here are the specific phonetic differences that make Appalachian English one of the most distinctive and divergent dialects within the United States:

An intrusive R occurs in words such as wash, leading to the pronunciation "warsh". (I used to love sitting in front of my mom in church so I could listen to her sing "Are you warshed in the blood?" :D)

Creek is pronounced /krɪk/ (As in, "We'll be there if the crik don't rise.")

An -er sound is often used for long "o" at the end of a word. For example, hollow— "a small, sheltered valley"— is pronounced holler. (i.e. He lives just around the holler from here.)

The "z" sound in certain contractions is pronounced as a d stop. For example, Isn't and wasn't are often pronounced idn't and wadn't. ("My cuddin dudn't like me to talk is way." - translation: My cousin doesn't like me to talk this way.)

H retention occurs at the beginning of certain words. It, for example, is sometimes pronounced hit, and ain't is sometimes pronounced hain't. (He hain't been here for a week.)

Participles and gerunds such as doing and mining end in /n/ instead of ing. While this occurs to some extent in all dialects of American English, it occurs with greater frequency in Southern Appalachia. (My Papaw worked in minin' for a long time when he wadn't doin' somethin' else.)

Word final a is sometimes pronounced y, as in okra. (My Aunt Wanda is called Wand-y.) and while we're at it, Word final i is sometimes pronounced /a/. (Cincinnati is pronounced Cincinnata. and Ohio is pronounced O-hi-uh.)

Intervocalic s as in greasy is pronounced /z/. (Also in my Aunt Daisy - pronounced Daze.)

Some Phonetics:

Vowels are drawn out in that "Southern drawl" and may have two syllables - red is pronounced rey-ed.

In the two-syllable vowel /аɪ/, the second half of the vowel syllable is often omitted, and is thus pronounced similar to [ɑː]. In extreme instances, words such as "wire" and "fire" are pronounced so as to completely rhyme with "car." (I wonder war's the far!)

AND HEREIN LIES THE PROBLEM:

Short "i" and short "e" have the same pronunciation when appearing before "n" or "m" (e.g., "pen" and "pin" are both pronounced "pin"). Adjectives are often used to distinguish between the two (e.g., "ink pen").

If you'd like to read even more ways we talk differently than those of you who talk wrong, you can read about Appalachian English here. ;)

Here is a conversation I might have had with my Papaw (grandfather) when I was a young'un...

"Well hullo! Come on in. I was just fixin' to get somethin' to eat. Sit on down here and get yuself a cathead biscuit and sop it in some gravy. I reckon they'd be plenty if ya hain't too hungry. Doggonnit! If I hain't knocked that bowl clean off the table and gaumed it all up. Land sakes! Well, get that sack of flour down from over yonder and I'll go to fixin' some more. After we're done eatin' we'll fix us a mess of beans and a pone of cornbread to have for dinner. Then for supper, we'll go on up the road apiece and get us somethin' at the Burger King."

Now, granted, I don't talk like that in my regular day to day life, but when I get on the phone with one of my aunts in Kentucky, that dialect starts to slide out of my mouth like butter on a hot biscuit. My kids always know when I'm talking to one of them, because even after I hang up the phone, it takes awhile to shake it off. "Welllllllll, Lord have mercy! What in THE world are you all lookin' at?"

"Mom. Talk normal."

"This IS normal, I reckon!"

So why do my people talk is way? There are lots of theories about that. One theory is that people in Appalachia are cut off from the rest of the country. Well, not since the advents of things like cars and the internet - and they still talk this way. And why, when someone moves from Kentucky to the big city, do they continue to talk this way? And even the second generation of transplants (that would be me) continue in some of this dialect.

Many of the words can be found in Shakespeare, like afeared and reckon. Well, shoot. Reckon is even in the Bible! So are we just the remnants of a society that spoke Elizabethan English, cut off from the rest of the world who continued to speak it when the rest of the world evolved into what my family calls "normal" English? Nah.

The most probable theory is that many people in the Appalachian region came from the lowland Scots who were early settlers to the region. You can find phrases like "might could" and I'm "a-goin" and "right cold" in many Scottish dialects. Which would explain why my family tree is made up of surnames like Lawson, Henderson and Erwin, all of which have clans and tartans and probably talked just as funny in good old Scotland as they still do in my old Kentucky home!

So let's be politically correct about all this. Just because we talk differently than the rest of America doesn't mean we're rednecks; it means we're interesting and have a rich cultural heritage. No foolin'!

The snow must go on...

So the weather forecast said the snow was going to taper off Sunday morning. I think that's when it really kicked in. Big fluffy flakes palling around together until we had another 10+" on the ground with snow drifts waist high.

So how 'bout them Stillers? Sorry, that was in Pittsburgh-ese. Let me translate. So, how about those Steelers? :D I was wearing black and gold back when we were waiting for 1 for the thumb and the Steelers were on a roll. The game got so close at one point Sunday that I had to walk away and bite my nails (which was pretty gross since I was washing dishes. LOL). Of course, I kept coming back asking what was happening. So yeah, there were some pretty impressive plays in the game, but do you know what impressed me most? The most impressive part of the game was when several huge, manly men, in the face of uncertainty when two players went down on the field, got on their knees and cried out to God for mercy. Wow! That was powerful!

It reminded me of an incident that happened a few days before. There was a lot of praying going on on the Hudson River when 155 people looked death in the face and then turned and walked away.

Two incidents in one week showed the nation that God would be glorified - one way or the other.

I am reading "Purpose Driven Life" again and today we read that we were made to glorify God. When we are doing what we were created to do, it glorifies God. When an ant acts like an ant as he was created to do, it glorifies God. And when we do what we were created to do (worship God), it glorifies God.

One thing I've realized lately is that life is short. I'm probably half way through mine and what have I done? All the normal stuff - had a career, got married, had children. But what have I done with any eternal consequences? I'm thinking about going on a mission trip. I'll let you know if that comes to pass...

Well, the battery on the laptop is telling me it's time to close out this post...more later.

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Baby it's Cold Outside!

This is what we woke up to here this morning! Yes, that's a MINUS 4.9 degrees F! The low overnight was -7, so we were on the upswing at 9 a.m. It did finally hit 3 degrees at some point this afternoon, but it's back down to -1 with a low forecast tonight for -12! Brrrrr!

Speaking of which, I had a layout published today! Digital Scrapbook Place released it's new Inspiration Station, entitled, "Baby, it's Cold Outside!" My layout, Winter Beauty, was included in this edition. Thanks, DSP!!

The world is your playground

I wanted to share a layout I did today featuring my youngest daughter. I took these pictures of her last Summer in Niagara on the Lake. She was just wandering around in the grass by the lake having the time of her life while I sat nearby happily capturing her on film. (Well, technically, I guess I captured her on a memory card, but you know what I mean. ;) The scrapbook kit I used had the tire swing in it, and I couldn't resist extracting her from a photo where she was leaning on a rock looking at the lake, and carefully placing her on the swing. ;) I really enjoy doing formal heritage pages, but every once in awhile I need to play and do a graphical artsy page. This turned out to be one of my favorite layouts.

Free to Play Page Kit by Nicole Young coming soon to DSP

The story that started it all...

This is the story I told my friends at DSP that led to this blog. I thought it would be appropriate to post it here...

My husband was late going to the barn Christmas Eve (what with putting together Big Wheels and doll strollers) and he happened to get to the barn just after midnight. Now everyone knows that the animals can speak at midnight on Christmas Eve, so he actually went around and had conversations with everyone. After hearing all the demands of the animals, he sat down to a game of Scrabble with the sheep. It took a very long time, seeing they don't have thumbs - or fingers, for that matter, and they have a hard time picking up those little tiles with hooves.

The sheep discussed some of their wishes over the game, one of which was adding barley to their feed as they are partial to it, and another being the demand for a new ram. Apparently the ram we have (which is the only ram in the flock) has quite an attitude and thinks he is God's gift to ewes, which the girls find hard to appreciate.

When he finally came in from the barn I asked him whatever took so long to do chores, and he told me about talking to the animals. I asked why the other animals weren't invited to play Scrabble, and he said the sheep discussed that.

The horse is too snobbish to play games with sheep (though the sheep suspect she is just trying to hide the fact that she can't read and write). The cows, apparently, can only spell MOO, and there are just so many O's in the game. The pigs are just slobs and the sheep just don't mingle with them. The flock of chickens have relocated to the chicken coop across the street, but three of them were tired of being cooped up and moved back to the barn. They are the scorekeepers for the scrabble games, but no one ever knows who won, because the sheep can't read their chicken scratch.

The day after Christmas, my husband was right out in the barn installing game tables and overhead lighting in the sheep pen. The cows asked for fleece bras since it gets very cold here (he asked me to make them, but I had to draw the line somewhere!) The horse just wanted the burrs brushed out of her tail and the pigs wanted to go out into the pasture and dig since the snow had mostly melted and the ground was soft and muddy, so he put them out and they had a great time.

I was mildly annoyed that the girls in the barn were getting so much attention just because they could talk one day of the year. I talk nonstop and where does it get me? I guess I complained enough about it, because he did come in and paint the kitchen ceiling and put up a new ceiling fan for me, so now I'm as happy as the other animals around here.

So that's the most recent news from the funny farm. If anyone has a henpecked ram for sale, please let me know.

I know, I know...

So my last post was last June and the one before that was last January. And here we are in January again. And last time I said I'm going to post more often, but I didn't.

So I was in a forum on DSP and I wrote a funny little story about the farm and girls were ROFLOL. They asked me to start blogging the stuff that pops into my head so they could read it. I told them I have a blog, but I hardly ever use it. (Like those gadgets my mother in law buys on TV and I put it in the drawer...but, I digress.)

So, one of my New Year's Resolutions is to start blogging on a somewhat regular basis. It shouldn't be hard if I try. I'm homeschooling two 3rd graders and a kindergartner. (My 7th and 9th graders are pretty much on auto-pilot.) So I should be able to pop in quite regularly to journal here while they are doing spelling papers or math tests.

Now that I put one of my New Year's Resolutions in writing for all the world to see (as my sister says), I have to do it, huh?