Consider yourself warned!

So the challenge put out by Cherrio's on my butt was to peek at what we look like first thing in the morning. So far, I am impressed by how GOOD so many of you look in the morning, BUT I have been told, though the course of my life, on more than one occasion that I look not so good in the mornings. And I'm still OK with myself, so, no worries.

This is untouched, peoples! I am not trying to look this bad, and I even tossed a few hairs out of my face already - so I could see- but this is what my family wakes up to, except I usually don't have a half grin on- yes, that's a half grin- couldn't get the other side up.

After I looked at this picture, I went back to bed chuckling. Hubby asked what was so funny - I showed him the picture, told him I looked bad, and he says "I'd call it more 'rough'."

Wordless Wednesday

What a weekend

I feel so blessed; we may be poor in the pocket, but we are rich in family! Both my brothers are in ministry. They have more talent with kids than I do by far, and they're not even parents!
My brother J stayed with us this weekend and it is always a delight to have him. He brings goodies! Not that we wouldn't love his visit anyway without goodies, but the goodies are REALLY APPRECIATED! I loved it when he worked at Starbucks 'cause he would bring down a pound of coffee beans or two each visit. This last time he came down he brought some milk chocolate covered mint oreo cookies. He asked me how I like them -I liked them- but they are not as good as the FUDGE covered mint oreos. My all time favorite store bought cookies.
He said I may be out of luck 'cause he LOOKED UP AND DOWN for those cookies and couldn't find them! He doesn't think they make them anymore.
Well, bless my heart, it really touched me that J took that effort to find my all time favorites. It really did.
Yesterday was my birthday so we went to the zoo. Just me, my kids, hubby and my mom. I really enjoy the zoo, I'm exhausted today, but really enjoyed the zoo. There is still chocolate cake in the fridge and for those of you that know I'm trying to lose some poundage, the chocolate is not helping! Yummy good! But not helping.

Hello friends,

been busy, crazy, full weekend, maybe I'll tell you more about it Tuesday,
but right now I've got to run . . . talk to you all later!

Challenges all around

It's hard to write on the computer with a fussy 9 month old. Yesterday he broke his 101-102 fever that he'd been struggling with SINCE SUNDAY, and now today, no fever, he is just . . . Well . . . a crybaby!
Here a cry- there a cry- everywhere a cry cry . . . Old mommy is going to the funny farm . . E. I. E. I. O . . .
But I look around my blog friends and see SEVERAL sisters seem to be having "ONE OF THOSE DAYS"
Dear Yellowmama I know why we women blog! It is like a whole bunch of us mamas relating, and using sentences that are not said with a sing song voice! But pretty much we can sum up bloggin in: I relate, yup, hmm, I relate . . .blog blog blog -comment; I relate. And if I can't relate, perhaps I can imagine!"
Can you relate to me? Can you imagine?! Does anyone know WHAT IS UP with my son?

And now I am going to tackle that mountain of dishes. (No dishwasher but me)

I told my hubby one day that a special day for me would be one where I didn't have to do the dishes.
He said - "Sure, ok, then don't do them today."
*Delight* pause *reality sets in*
"No" I say "I mean a special day is one where someone else does the dishes" not that they just pile up for me to do them all the next day.
"Oh"
and so ends my "special day"

Sign language is not universal

35 year or so ago here in Mexico, and at least in Ensenada there was nothing
for the deaf.
NOTHING
So missionaries came down and taught what they knew, American Sign Language
(ASL) (a pidgin version) to give them language and a starting place to learn
to read and write.

Now, Mexican Sign Language (MSL) is developing and we are at a crossroads.

A deaf couple came to our deaf church service looking for help. They go to a hearing church near thier home, their hearing daughter interprets for them, but she doesn't know a lot of "church" words (as she put it) and wants to learn more to interpret for her mom and dad.

Problem: they sign ASL, and here at the deaf service we are changing over to MSL. Almost every deaf that grew up in Ensenada knows ASL, but more deaf are coming from other places and they sign MSL, so we are all learning MSL together, it's pretty funny.

I sign worship for them on Sundays and as I am learning MSL myself, I try my best to sign all MSL while worshiping. Sometimes I will see from the corner of my eye one deaf sign to another "What does that mean?!"

So back to this couple: well, I've agreed to sign their Thursday night service for 4
Thursday's in ASL, to help this family, and then invited them to our Sunday
service so they can learn MSL too!

Well see how that goes.
Ta ta for now!

Wordless Wednesday

The things my hubby likes to take pictures of! In his defense he says that "Hey!! It's hard to spear fishes with a spear under water!" Which he did, it's the FIRST fishes he's speared, thus we have a picture of them - and I don't know what to do with this picture . . . Can't delete it . . . Perhaps we could enlarge the photo (what a fish story that would be!) and mount it!!!

Is spelling overrated?

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I
was rdanieg The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig
to rscheearch taem at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't
mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny
iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the
rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll
raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid
deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a
wlohe. Such a cdonition is arppoiately cllaed Typoglycemia.

Amzanig huh? Yaeh and yuo awlyas thought slpeling was
ipmorant

I can't spell, and my friends know it, so I had to share this from the good, clean funnies list.

Ta ta for now!

This picture is for the blog below

Our worst (well, bad, anyway) nightmare!

If you saw this dog on the side of a busy highway would you stop to get it?
I wouldn't if I didn't know how precious and loved it is.

When I was pregnant with Princess one of the baby shower gifts I received
what this dog. It was the softest thing too. It has since morphed into
something that feels more like a used towel, and has been washed so many
times that it's care tag is shredded to nothing. I DO remember the tag
saying something like "wash surface only with damp cloth"

Yeah right! With kids who, in creative and imaginative ways, get all sort
of stuff (poop, pee, vomit, snot, urp, spit, etc.) on their favorite lovies,
our house rule is that if it doesn't survive the washer it wasn't meant to
be.

So, driving down a highway that parallels the ocean, back from a busy day,
all of a sudden I hear "Uh-oh, dog-dog bye bye"

With her window down I just saw with mommy eyes what happened, so I do an
incredibly fast round about to see. . .

"Where's dog-dog?" I'm desperately searching her seat, below, behind her . .
. Nothing
"Dog-dog outside"
"where's dog-dog?!"
"Dog-dog all gone!, Dog-dog in da wader"

It was our worst nightmare (like I said, almost) because ever since it was
definite that she preferred this plain o'l brown dog to all others we said we
needed to find a second one in case she ever lost this one. But by that
time even the tag of where this dog was made was so washed out I couldn't
read it. We have searched and searched and have yet to find where this dog
came from or if there are more.

So what choice did we have but to drive in reverse on the highway for about
1/2 mile until we saw it, forlornly, laying on the road.
Later as we were driving along I hear from the back "I love you!"
*oh!* I was so touched! What gratitude!
"Big hug!" I hear from her, and I turn around to give her a squeeze and
SHE"S TALKING TO THE DOG!

Please, if you recognize this dog and where he came from we would be so
happy to know! And second I am curious - what lovies do your kids have? I
would love to hear about them.

My first MEME

I am so excited, I've been tagged by Stephanie: so here goes . . .

What is your favorite word? Coudn't think of just one - Jesus is the most wonderful word of all - In the begining was the Word, ya know what I'm saying?

What is your least favorite word? organic - when used in an artistic way -
like "the colors picked were so organic"

What turns you on? Dancing ;-)

What turns you off? Bad smells

What�s your favorite curse word? again, with my sisters, don't use foul
language, but will very emphatically use "dangnabbit!"

What sound or noise do you love to hear? our kids laughter!!! LOVE IT! And
princess singing. I love the sound of a morning dove, and the rooster crow
in the morning.

What noise do you hate? metal cutting cardboard or Styrofoam - gives me the
willies! *bbrrr*, and even the thought of dry fingernails on a tight shoe
lace makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, but is that really a
sound?

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Stage
Actress, really, but I have NO talent for it. Tried out for all the plays
in High School and mostly got "chorus" parts. :-)

What profession would you NOT like to do? Telemarketing, back in the day I
took a temp job for a couple of hours cause I quit! It was awful!

What would you like to hear God say at the pearly gates? "Baby girl, [big
hug] your gonna love this!"

Ok Kelly your tagged now, your turn!

Unusually busy days

In Ensenada, there are not a lot of resources for the deaf. No relay service and I don't know of anyone here that has a TTY, so almost daily now for about a week, someone will come over and ask me to make a phone call for them. I become their relay service. Most of the calls are to ask a business if they have a job opening and if they accept deaf. We get a lot of "no"s.
But yesterday there was a YES! So step two, today I am going with the young lady to help interpret while she applies for the job. Then tonight I will be interpreting for a church meeting of ministry leaders for Carlos who pastors the deaf, and is deaf himself.
It'll be a busy day today, thankfully both kids are sleeping !!!Its 8:37!!!! How did that happen? !! Oh yes, I remember, princess took off a poopy diaper in bed so we had one middle of the night bedding change, and then she couldn't get back to sleep without making sure we woke up a few more times . . . And little prince was up early this morning and he is actually on his first nap! So I get to write a quick HI! Now for my morning coffee -

It's al about housework today!

Kelly, you are not alone!

Owlhaven: Not A Licensed Establishment
http://astayathomemom.blogspot.com/2006/05/for-love-of-cleaning.html

A brag on my hubby and more.

It warms my heart so to walk into scenes like this! (My hubby, what a guy!)

I'm trying to get rid of some poundage that I have put on since my last boys birth! The previous owner left a rickety old HUGE treadmill, and after much begging my hubby finally put it in the house. It barely works, and if I stop walking on it, it stops too - the motor isn't strong enough - that or I'm just TO HUGE for it to continue working, and that is just too depressing to think about! BUT . . .

The good news is that I used it today for 30 minutes, walking (I don't do jumps or running) and worked up a sweat on the back of my hands. That hasn't happened in years! I kinda believe that part of the reason a walk is such a good exercise is that I'm kind of pushing the thing along to keep it rolling! No matter, I gave myself a star on my calendar!

And afterwards, as I cooled down on the porch I realized that I absolutely don't feel good from the exercise like my hubby would expect me to. My endorphens (Right word? Right spelling? My spell checker didn't recognize it) were not functioning like promised! I felt proud of myself for doing it, not adding to my weight but doing something active to take it off, but that's about it and I feel jipped!

Heck, I feel more endorphens getting my coffee - especially if it is enough coffee to make you feel like you've had a good nights sleep, but not enough to make you shake . . . That a fine line!

Wordless Wednesday

Does anybody know what I'm talken about here!

Surprise Dentist!

Well I said here that I was looking forward to having some time to myself in Barnes & Noble, with a starbucks coffee in hand! Nope - Early Monday morning I check our voice mail (I really need to do this more often!) but I found a message from my dentist saying that I had an appointment at 12pm that I COMPLETELY forgot about (not at all my usual). Must be mommy brain! Anyway - my couple of hours in the book store with coffee became a couple of hours in the dentist chair with drilling! UGH!

Mother's Day was fun. The picture is of Princess's uncle J, and she is NOT drinking a margaritta, it is daddy's lemonade! But if you look at the setting, it is outside, which is beautiful until something from the trees falls into your COFFEE!

Thought: wealth and fame are similar in that no matter what level of wealth you have there is another level to get to. Fame is much the same way in that everyone has a level of fame, but there is always someone more "famous" if you will. Is there "the richest person on earth" or is there "the most famous person on earth"?

Early morning Mother's Day

Had dreams that I would have breakfast in bed, hubby would be rising early to do the daily dress, change, feed of the kiddos, and he would bring nursing boy to me in the morrning while in bed and I . . . aahh . . .. Get to sleep in!

Not!

Reality is 6am alarm goes off to the sound of "wheaa wheaa" which means "mommy!, breakfast!" And hubby is snoring.

So I stumble off, eyes crusty .. . *blink*blink* . .. . and get the boy. Mmmm I love the smell of a washed before bed baby . .. .. mmm. I check- princess isn't moving - good! (he he he) she snores too!

Today, we are expecting my brother to come down and together with my mother, we are going to a buffet that is in a beautiful setting. That should be nice. But the real treat for me is that I was promised a few hours in Barnes & Noble sans kids! I am so looking forward to that!

What did you do for Mothers Day?

A baby shower, cactuses and sign

You know those moment where your doing something then something in your back goes "twaim". Had one carrying my little prince to bed for his nap this morning. Now my back hurts, but not enough to disable me, but enough to get me to suck air between my teeth every once and a move.
And I had a baby shower to go to where they wanted me to bring my two little ones. It is a school for the deaf that I worked at for 8 years before (and where) I met my husband. Most of the people at the shower were deaf, the mother-to-be herself is hard of hearing. Those that weren't deaf know sign except my own mother who tagged along.

My little princess had a fall and must have landed on a cactus of some sort since she came over to me arm out "oowy, mommy" with little thorns that looked like quills from a very small porcupine sticking out of it. Thankfully some friend interceded on my behalf since I had just put very tired little prince to nurse. I think we got all the thorns out.

When we are in a situation like that I find Princess will use the sign she knows. She spent the first year of her life with us at this school - it's a residential school - so she grew accustomed to people who didn't talk but with their hands. So when we went to Disneyland and she met the costumed characters like Chip and Dale, she tried signing to them. Pretty Funny!

My back? Feels OK when I sit down, it's movement that hurts or standing straight up. Good excuse to sit at the computer for a while!

This one's for grandma

here's our little guy . . . And yes, he is pulling himself to standing now, crawling, and basically able to get himself into all sorts of trouble.
And the one of our little lady is taken at the zoo . . . The little bit of blue around her mouth is from M&M's that certainly can and do melt in your hands, seat, face . . .

WATER!

Oh, and we have water again! I got my shower! AAAHHH
All's well that ends well.

Boogers happen

It started off innocently enough, little girl has big booger in her nose and mommy goes for it.

To get her cooperation I would say "Wow! You have a big booger, LOOK!" after I would get it, and YES I would show her, and then we would throw it in the trash.

The unintentional effect was that she would pull out a good one and say "Look mommy! Big booger!" But I took this as a good thing since I would then admire it and throw it in the trash.

You see, I know kids like to pick their nose, really who doesn't when you got a good crusty back there, we adults just use tissue, the pick and flick, or some other method of removal. And now with this system in place my little princess will holler out "Look mommy! Big booger" and either give it to me (yes, my hubby thinks this is SOOO GROSS!), or put it in the trash herself.

So, do you know what your kids do with their boogers?

Water

*Arrgghh!!* Our house water is shut off AGAIN today! How fustrating! Got some laundry done, kids bathed and some dishes done before it went and that is a GOOD THING. I do dishes the old fashion way - by hand, not by choice. That and I also don't have a dryer and don't consider it special to hang laundry up on a line to dry.

I didn't get my shower in, and that makes me one smelly momma!

*sigh* oh well. At least we have wet wipes.

My favorite mug

I love my coffee mug. I don't care that it is seasonal, it is the only mug that fits half, HALF!, my coffee pot in it. I only drink two cups of coffee a day, but that is one whole pot!

My coffee maker makes 8 (ha!) cups -

I really need to cut back, perhaps tomorrow. Right now I need my cup of nap.

Found mommy's make-up

You are a princess

Can't sleep, thinking about little princess who is sleeping . . . Well, like a baby. Plus as Kelly would understand, here in Ensenada where I'm living the water has been off since early Monday morning. I got one load of laundry done then *poof* nothing. I called the water company and they said that they didn't expect the water to be back on in our area until Wednesday! YUCK! Maybe it is not such a bad thing that we are going to be out and about tomorrow - um - today!

So my mind wanders. I was thinking about Beth Moore's talk about how little children know they are part of a kingdom, princesses and knights, seems innate to them. "Didn't you know?!"

My brother, who dates a lovely young lady that played the character belle at Disney, is a bit partial to "The Beauty and the Beast" then one day he is talking to a little girl about her t-shirt that had all the Disney princesses on it.

"Bet you can't guess which princess is my favorite!?" He asked her

"Me?"

Yup

Didn't you know?!

My little princess

I think my little princess has a blader infection. It will be my first - ever, never had one myself, so we're taking her to the doctors tomorrow.

*sigh*

Hate to see them in pain.

But I don't feel like it.

Love is a choice. Joy is a choice, and so is peace. We love our husbands inspite of what we may be feeling for them at the time. We have joy inspite of what we may be going though - or in spite of what we are feeling, and peace is giving Jesus reign inspite of ourselves. Sum total for my life is that very little, very little in deed is done or not done because of how I feel about it.

My little prince has his first two teeth coming out now! That and he has figured out how to pull himself up to a standing position, crawl, and sit up all by himself. Seems like all this happened this last week. The consequence is that nap time for him is a battle cause he just pulls himself up and babbles. So after about 3 days of him missing his naps I finally just laid down with him this morning and voila! he sleeps, and so did I! Hey, I could get used to this!

102.3

I have decided that I won't fight the gray hairs or aging in general, but I do want my wrinkles to be in the right places. Mom always said that if you make that face it would get stuck like that, well, I'm smiling right now cause I want my wrinkles to stick there! I want crows feet! Deep ones! I do not want that puckered frown wrinkle lips. So, I'm smiling, I mean after all what kind of wrinkles do you want?

Oh, and princess is now using the "big potty"! PTL! They say that potty training is a right of passage for the parents as much as it is for the kids - well I think I need my merit badge or something!

Got Milk?

My little princess was on my bed playing with a couple of dolls when I decided to join in her play:
"Mommy nigh-nigh"

"Mommy, hochoclat-milk?" which is what she usually gets before a nap
She made a fist and "fed" me the milk, then she looked at me . . .

she grabbed some of her belly and started walking over as best as she could on her knees towards me . . .

"booby milk, mommy?"