Aim High, Girls!

This magazine needs a new title. I'm thinking along the lines of "Seventeen and Pregnant".

Coming up in November's Issue: "Start Your Own Cottage Industry: Get More Bucks for Your Bang." 

The Semi-licensed Driver

We go to the DMV in a small town not far from us because I know it is never busy. True to form, there was only one other patron there ahead of us. I thought to myself, "Oh nice, we'll be in and out of here super fast." Boy howdy, was I wrong! We waited 30 minutes just for someone to call her name.

It just goes to prove the DMV is out to punish us all. They saw you going 5 miles over the speed limit on I-85 yesterday. Don't think that just because they didn't give you a ticket your crime would go unpunished.

Kids Get Hold of Camera

It's always fun to see what the kids do with a camera when they aren't supposed to have it.

The following might be disturbing. It is very important, in an effort to keep it real, that I show them in their entirety. So I will not Photoshop or in any way censure the following the material.

I'll go easy on you though.



I really hope they did not look at the sun too long to get this shot.











Define "sanity" for me. Please.

2am and Sleeplessness

I hear every stinking noise in this house. The teeniest tiniest noise even. The bunny downstairs when she nibbles her hay wakes me. The Happy Man and His Dumptruck going up and down the road at 2am wakes me. The heat clicking on and off...wakes me.

Ugh. Must. Get. Sleep.

It's 3am She Must Be Lonely

Once again I am having another sleepless night. I am so exhausted. I've been reading my friends blogs and Michele had this great list of lifetime events that she got from Chautona.

Make your own list. Simply bold the things you have done and leave the rest normal.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/Disneyworld
8. Climbed a mountain.
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you weren’t ill.
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a marathon.
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29 Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagra Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung Karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45 Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60 Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64 Donated blood, platelets, or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp.
67 Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the changing of the guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79 Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the paper
85. Read the entire Bible.
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating.
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

I really don't think these are a good idea

What are we teaching the children? This looks like a drive-by massacre. These things are totally creepy in the daytime.

Keeping it Real

Kelsea doesn't think it's fair that I posted all those pics and didn't post any of myself. She took quite a few of me.

So, here I am. In all my stinky, been sitting in the rain, didn't have access to a shower...or a mirror, glory.

Cleaning Calumet

We are still getting alot of work done at the old house on Calumet. We are friends with our landlady and want to leave things in good shape.



Leon saved the old tires on the truck in case something happens to the new ones. It's less expensive that way. And they are going in storage so I have no complaints.

The furniture is all moved and gone so the boys were happy for somewhere to sit.

Ishmael was looking so grown up and manly here that I had to take a picture.



Silly boys.





We've been eating more McDonald's lately than I care to admit...

Moving Day

The move was very hard work. We got up at the break of dawn and went to bed at midnight. Every single night.

Being my mother's child we had to clean from top to bottom before any of my stuff set foot in this house.






I think we made at least 3 trips in the U-HAUL.



These guys weren't allowed to ride in the U-HAUL because of the airbags. So Leon took them for a ride around the block.





Even Kelsea worked hard. She made her mama proud.



The kids thought the U-HAUL was the coolest ride on earth!

McDonald's

We've been house hunting for the last few weeks. So tonight, like many nights lately, we had dinner at McDonald's.

I decided to use this opportunity to work on my photography skills.











I did aaiight.

Blog Challenge

Close your eyes. Take a deep breath, and then type the first five things you think of when you think of summer.

I think of time in the sun, chlorine in the swimming pool, fireflies and june bugs, radio playing outside, and smoke from the grill.

Blog Challenge

Finish this sentence: "Life is good when..."

I'm with my family.

Picture of the Day

While the boys were playing in the water hose. I was relaxing, taking pictures, sunbathing, and listening to my I-pod. I also watched the bumble bees in the clover.

It took me back to when I was a kid and would just sit and watch the little things going on. Like the rain trickling down my window in the car while Dad was driving. The ants rebuilding their hill that I just walked on. The clouds in the sky. I don't do that often anymore, but every now and again I'll sit and daydream.

Mandy's Treasure Cove

This title is very fitting for where I am right now. In the last year I have come to appreciate my family more. My brother in law died a very sudden death January of 07. It was very hard for all of us, especially my husband. We drew closer together in that time of sorrow.

Last summer Leon damaged his knee. It required surgery (which meant alot of time out of work). I went back to work with the intention of us saving my paycheck so we could buy a house. Leon's absence from work made us dependent on my income.

While working I continued to homeschool our children. It was incredibly difficult to keep up with everything. I felt so out of touch with who I am. I missed being home with my children dreadfully!! There was no time to just sit and be with my children. I had to correct their work, teach them new lessons, plan future lessons, and run off to work.

I am still working but right now it's only on Saturday and Sunday. I will still be out of fellowship with my church until the time comes that I can completely leave my job. Or until my employer decides that my availability is no longer an asset to the company.

BUT!!! I am home Monday through Friday! I don't have to hurry a lesson to be on time for work. I can sit and chase rabbit trails with them. I can stop and answer those never ending questions that come to their little minds when we are reading a story.

My home is my Treasure Cove. Here I can set anchor, and put behind me the troubling sea. It is my shelter from the storm.