I will BLOG

My goal is to blog once a week, let's see if I can do it.

Our Lovely Wonderful Government

Dear World, more specifically Dear USA.


WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wake up and demand real change before the world that we though we knew is over and ended. Demand reform in the healthcare system not more government control. Demand more accountability from our government. Demand that the members of Congress actually READ EACH AND EVERY bill BEFORE voting on it and to make sure that they read it, read it again out loud to Congress before the vote on it. Get rid of all of these unneeded government positions that will slowly zap what little privacy we have left away from us. Demand that the Congress, President and Courts stays out of our lives, our health, our money and definitely out of the actual government as much as possible. In fact lets go back to a part time Congress when they were only in session for half the year. I want my county back.

I have a new computer, maybe I will actually blog more since it has a blog writer thingy.

Yes, It is that time of year again!

It's Christmas time, "the most wonderful time of the year!"? I have had a difficult time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. Usually I am all for everything that has to do with Christmas. It just seems to be blah for me this year. My husband and I have finished most of our Christmas shopping. We finally put up our tree yesterday. We attempted to put up lights today but we need to buy a couple more strings. I've been listening to Christmas music and looking at the beautiful Christmas lights but it seems so completely and uttterly pointless this year. I guess I'm having a "Blue Christmas". I guess maybe it is the craziness of it all. Going to see everyone, buying presents for everyone, the wrapping, the Christmas cards, the lights, the spending way too much money. It is just so nutty. I wish that people would celebrate Christmas more simply. Like parents giving their children only one or two presents. Like not having to have the best and biggest and most perfect gift for everyone. Stop rushing and slow down. Stop and smile to the people at the stores. Be more grateful for what your have and more giving to those who do not have it. Instead of buying presents for everyone, go out and buy shoes for someone whose shoes are worn out or a hot meal for the panhandler on the corner and actually sit down and eat that meal with him. This is the time of year to celebrate the greatest gift of all, the gift of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, born in a humble stable, with animals all around, sent to save a world that didn't want to be saved.

I'm a bad blogger : (

I'm a bad blogger. I have not blogged since August. I don't know what's worse. Me not writing anything in forever or the people who blog every day, several times a day. Why do people want to blog so much. It isn't as if we are going to change the world. For that to happen people would actually have to read this stuff. Think about it. Is anyone actually reading this ? Does it even matter? Blogs, myspace (even I have a myspace), facebook, etc are nothing but a voyeuristic creation of the me generation. The same generation that cares about self first and everyone and everything else second. IF anyone actually reads this please comment so that I know that this isn't a total waste of self-indulgent time.

Life is never what your truely expect it to be

Life has a bad habit of throwing curve balls at you. Prime example, this summer was supposed to be THE SUMMER TO GET IT ALL TOGETHER. We were going to finally get the entire house together and organized. We were going to have the office organized. We were going to have a wonderful outside front and back yard. we were going to get up early every day and do all of this stuff and spend good quality time with the girls. This summer was going to be perfect. Here is how it truly turned out. 1 - I did get the whole house pretty well organized EXCEPT FOR THE DOWNSTAIRS DEN, THE OFFICE AND THE UTILITY ROOM. Not too bad and I still have a week to maybe get that done. The front yard doesn't look too bad, although I need to cut down those two pines and trim back the azaleas before they go wild on me and the side yards could use a little work. The back yard is another story. There is stuff everywhere. The grass needs to be cut, the fence needs to be cemented in, the garden (that has barely produced anything other than plants and no fruit) needs to be severely attended to (weeds and overgrowth) and the grapes need to be cut back so maybe we will actually be able to harvest next year. We did go to Busch Gardens twice and we went to the campground with the girls. I took them to Maymont once. We played some but it still wasn't the quality time that I had envisioned. I've been out of school since June 8th and here it is, two months to the day later, on August 8th, that I am reflecting upon this summer and I feel as though I wasted too much time. Next week I need to go to school at least one day but I'll probably end up going twice and the week after that it is back to school full time. Where has the summer gone and how can I get it back? I am vowing now that in the time that I have left before I go to school, beginning tomorrow, I will get finished what I need to finish, whether it is 101 (like today) or 81 degrees outside. That way, I can enjoy my evenings and weekends with my family and friends. I'm tired of this house being an idol in my life!!! CHANGE MUST HAPPEN AND IT MUST HAPPEN NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Life

You know, sometimes life passes by so quickly. Madison is already going into 4th grade. I remember her first day of school. She was wearing a purple plaid skirt and cute little white top that matched. She was so proud carrying her huge pink backpack with her name sign pinned on her shirt. She was so little and innocent. Now she is almost 10 and beginning to act like a preteen. We still have girls night every Friday night. I started girls night when I was pregnant with Alana so Madison would still feel special and not jealous of her new baby sister coming. Alana has joined us for most of girls night but she goes to bed early. I'm sure Seanna will join us when she gets to be about 3 years old but by then Madison might not want to have girls night anymore. Last night we watched Annie. The girls have never seen it. Annie was one of my favorites when I was little. We watched it and they loved it. Even Alana, who is 4 years old, sat still through the entire movie and said she loved it when it was over. I think that maybe next week we will play some games or maybe paint nails or do hair. My little girls are so precious to me. Watching them grow from an entirely dependent little infant whose entire world revolves around her and you to a toddler exploring her surroundings for the first time to a preschooler who wants to know the who, what, where, when, why and how of everything to a child playing with Barbies and baby dolls and my little ponies to a preteen beginning to worry about how she looks and what her friends think of her is such a wonderful experience. I'm sure that the teenage years will bring their own set of challenges. I still can't believe that God entrusted me to the upbringing and care and love of three of His most beautiful creations. I feel truly blessed to have them. Every hig, every kiss and even every tear is like sweet nectar to me. All to soon those little blessings of life will be only a memory of these sweet days of childhood and I will keep each and every one of those memories close to my heart.

I really haven't blogged since February . . . OOPS

Well, it is Memorial Day. It is the day that has been set aside to remember our veterans and our fallen heroes - our soldiers. It is a day to spend time with friends and family, grilling outside and celebrating the unofficial start to summer. I've had a very lazy weekend. On Saturday I did a few things around the house - not much and we went to Commonwealth Chapel ( http://www.comchap.com ). We spent all day Sunday at the Upper Mattaponi Pow Wow. I got quite a burn on my face and neck. (OUCH). It's funny, I put sun screen on everyone but me (OOPS). Today, I slept in as long as the girls would let me. I checked my email. I cruised on the net for awhile while drinking my coffee. Now I'm blogging to catch up anyone who is interested about my life. I decided that after the extreeme stress that I've been through for the past 2 months that I needed a break this weekend. I actually am RELAXING, a word that I thought was no longer in my vocabulary. So - time to catch up!!!!

March - Seanna started crawling, Had the Mardi Gras Dance at school (very big success), tried to review for SOLs with a collegue but my principal kept changing our schedule on a weekly basis, finished the yearbook at school - best ever created at ACMS

April - best part about April - Two Words - SPRING BREAK

May - Seanna started cruising then she took a couple of steps and she has cut her first tooth, SOL REVIEW, SOL REVIEW, SOL REVIEW, SOL REVIEW - Did I mention SOL REVIEW? Let's see, Seanna was also very sick, I've been sick, the requirements and demands of school made me so stressed out that I have had trouble eating, sleeping and it totally zapped me of energy. The last two weeks of school we have had SOL Testing and I have been stuck with the same 23 students for six hours a day for basically the last two weeks. Normally this wouldn't have been too much of a problem but when we were not testing I had to keep them quiet and busy. Can you imagine keeping 23 13 - 14 year olds quiet and occupied with SOL REVIEW piled on top of SOL REVIEW every day!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????

Present - I have EIGHT SCHOOL DAYS LEFT, not that I'm counting. My students get out of school next Thursday, I get out next Friday. This week I will be doing a project and makeup work. Next Monday, we go on the 8th grade trip and next Tuesday and Wednesday I putting my students to work helping me to clean up my room. We're also going to have a picnic, a movie and graduation practice. Graduation is at 10:00 am on Thursday. I'm hoping that the vast majority of our students will go home with their parents after graduation so that I can go back to school and finish my room.

My plan - This summer - We definately have to get the entire house together. I wanted to do it last summer but being pregnant kind of put a hold on it. We need to get it clean, organized and together and get into good habits about laundry and cleaning up or else next school year will be as bad as this year. It's funny, at school my classroom is completely organized and I even won the most organized teacher award this year but my house is a complete wreak. There are piles of laundry unwashed and piles of washed laundry unfolded. There are papers EVERYWHERE! There are toys and parts of toys EVERYWHERE! There are kid books EVERYWHERE! We can't use our downstairs den due to it being turned into a storage house. The junk needs to be cleaned up, sorted through and get rid of stuff that we aren't going to use. The kid play room can't be used because of the toys. The girls' bedroom can be used only for sleeping. The girls toys, books and clothes need to sorted through, organized and get rid of all of the extra stuff. Outside the grass needs to be cut, weeds need to be pulled, the yard needs to be cleaned up, ugly bushes need to be cut down, the fence needs to be cemented in and the junk in the backyard needs to be cleaned up, sorted through and organized. And I wat to get this all done between June 9 and July 9, one month. GOD HELP ME, I'm going to need it.