Playtime!?

Take a look at this picture. Do you see something odd or funny about it? Come on, take a good look:

Do you see those baby clothes hanging on the rod? Those are the clothes she just "washed." LOL!! We usually don't hang anything to dry, so I am not sure where she is going with that. And, yes, she plays in her closet. Despite the fact that she has a HUGE open space to play in her bedroom, my daughter chooses to play in her closet. A little odd, but she says she likes it, so I leave her there. We always have to clean the "closet" mess at the end of the day.

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One more picture for you here. What do you think she is doing in this one:

She lined up her tator tots like army men and the fish stick became Goliath. Do you see he has "blood" on him? I wonder why it takes us an hour to eat. LOL! Anyhow, thought it was cute.

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Hope you all enjoyed todays pictures. I hope to keep posting regularly, but I started back to full-time work yesterday. I will still homeschool, that is not a question, but with everything my mom needs help with, I thought it best, at least for a while, to go back to full-time. Please continue to pray for us through this tough situation. Thanks and God Bless!

Our Trip

Day 1:

Although short lived, our trip started out with a big adventure that cost us a lot of time in getting there. We started out on our drive and about 45 minutes into it, at the first small city, we were hit with a long detour. There was a large grass fire ahead on our regular highway, and we were being diverted to another via another small 2-lane highway. UGH! This detour added a good 2 hours to our drive and made a 7 hour drive turn into a 9 hour drive. It was awful. We had left late enough as it was, but we had to keep driving. We got to the city I was determined to eat at a lot later than planned, but we ate there anyway. We then filled up with gas and drove on. My plan was to drive to a city right outside Fort Worth and I succeeded. We made it there and realized we had driven almost 200 miles and my gas gauge hadn't moved!?! Yes, my gas gauge was stuck. It was stuck for the entire time we visited Dallas. Oh well. So there was our grass fire, detour, and stuck gas gauge. This was all just trying to get there. We finally made it in at 12:30am. Can I say we slept as soon as we got in. Unloaded the car and piled into beds and on the couch.

Day Two:

Sunday, we went to church and basically hung out. We never really did anything exciting but ooh and aah over my sister's beautiful baby. She definitely is a cute one. Anna and her Uncle Marc played soccer outside and then sang music and played guitar inside for a while. Anna really liked that and thoroughly enjoyed the one-on-one time she got. Not that she doesn't get one-on-one time, this was just different stuff. We don't have guitars and neat equipment at our place. We finished off the day with a few movies. It was fun and relaxing at the same time.

Day Three:

On Monday, we got up and headed to Grapevine Mills Mall. It is about 40 minutes from where my sister lived, but it is a fun mall. We first bought a few things for our girls, then we had lunch. YUM! Gotta love those real Philly Cheesesteaks! I can't seem to find a good place down here where we're at, so we always get them in the Dallas area. Then, came the exciting part....I took Anna ice skating for her very first round! YEAH!! It was a whole lotta fun. Anna got the skates on and was thrilled with the idea of ice skating, until we got to the ice. Then, she decided she was scared and didn't want to get on. I got her on, but she kept saying "No. I don't want to do this. I'm terrified." I reassured her and told her she would be okay and got her to get on and we started our first time around. She decided about half way around (this took a while as she wouldn't let go of the wall) that it was okay and she actually liked it and had fun. We made it around, took a break, and went back for a second round. She got really brave then and only held the wall with one hand or held onto my arm with both hands and started trying to actually move her feet right. She never really got it, and only fell a handful of times, but when we got off for good (about 45 minutes later) she said she wanted to go back again next time we go to Dallas, so I would say that it was a successful trip.

Day Four:

On Tuesday, we didn't really stick around long. My mom had a doctor's appointment with her neurologist and she wanted to visit her old work before we went, so we went over to Fort Worth and then waited for an hour and a half AFTER her scheduled appointment time to get in. Her MS is worsening as we already knew and I got to watch all the tests they run. The doctor she sees there is really nice and is supposed to be the best in Fort Worth, so I was happy to finally meet him. She did the little gripper thing where they need to see how much grip strength she has and the needle did not even move. She has next to no feeling in most of her extremities (he poked her with a pin and she barely felt it. never even flinched a little bit- OUCH!), she does not react at all when someone runs something up the bottom of her foot and could not remember but one of three item he wanted her to remember during the visit. I knew it was going downhill, but this is definitely the worst it has been ever. He will fill out the paperwork for our lawyer for SSI and we will pray that it will work out. He still says she is fully disabled and can not work, now it is just a matter of getting the judge at her hearing (the date still yet to be determined) to see that she is truly disabled and needs this help.

We left after the doctor visit and had a great drive home. My gas gauge started working about two hours in, when we stopped for supper I filled up and noticed it wasn't sitting at the over full mark and it was working. It has worked ever since, praise God. My brother, the mechanic, had told me that they would have to disassemble the gas tank to fix it, and since it is working now I am thanks God for that miracle.

Anyhow, now I will leave you with a few pictures of our trip. Hope you enjoyed our recap! God bless you and thanks for reading.

Anna Loves on Graciela

Anna Plays Soccer

Anna Plays Guitar

Anna and I right after she first stepped on the ice:

Anna close to the end of ice skating (much more confident):

Anna with the Rainforest Cafe elephant (She was amused by it so I took her picture.):

Graciela on the car ride home from shopping (Love that smile):

We're Back

We're back! The trip was short, but sweet. We played with, okay, we held my sister's new baby girl; we went ice skating (Anna and I did, and it was almost her highlight of the trip); we shopped a little; enjoyed the visit; took my mom to the doctor and came home!. That is our trip in a nutshell. I will expand on some of these things later, I just wanted to let you all know we made it back home. Now to do laundry, clean up, and get back into the swing of things at home. I promise to post pictures and an updated story later of the events of the trip, including car issues, and highway closing and grass fires. :-)

Packing and Cleaning

Funny title! No, we are not moving again. We haven't even finished this last move. We are cleaning and packing for our trip. We need to get all laundry done and I always try to leave a clean house, so even if my husband isn't joining us this time, I would like for the house to be clean. We will be packing everything today, except for bath stuff for tomorrow morning and a few odds and ends. Then we have a play day with the homeschool group at a local park. YEAH!! We needed a park play day. I can't wait. Anyhow, thats the update for today. Nothing new on any other front. We just had fun. I better go for now. Take care all and if I am not on till Wednesday or Thursday of next week its because there isn't time and I am out of town. Have a good day and in case I don't come back, have a good week.

NO Help!

Second Post today:
Well, as some of my more regular readers know, we have been fighting to get my mom disability money for quite some time. She was declared disabled by the doctor and even her work put her from nursing duties to a desk job and she couldn't do that. Her MS is just deteriorating too bad. Anyhow, I moved her up her so I could help her in August and she had taken out her retirement, so it has been relatively easy, but that money has been gone since November and there isn't anymore. Our church has paid her utilities I think 3 months in a row. We paid her phone, to keep it on, and we have other people pay her phone to keep it on local calls. She paid 6 months rent in advance, so we didn't have to worry about it at the time. That six months is now up. We have nothing and no one can help us with anything. If the state legally declared her disabled, which is what we are still fighting, then we can have plenty of help, but since the state is not declaring her diabled yet, we get nothing. I have called that 2-1-1 Texas number and they have only a few agencies listed that even give any kind of help with rent and none of them have money, or won't see her till the first, since that is when rent is due, and then it is not the whole amount. I have called church after church trying to find help and no one helps with rent and the ones who did have "appointed slots for help all full." How are we supposed to get help? She is slipping through the cracks and quickly. I don't know what else to do to help. I can't just up and pay her rent because I only work part time. My husband works full time, but we barely make our ends meet and we have been helping all we can. Shoot, we have to drive back to Fort Worth, a 6 hour drive, just to get her into the doctor for an updated appointment with her neurologist (who she sees for the MS.) The doctors here won't fill out her paper work for SSI disability, because they haven't seen her before. UGH! They won't see her because she has no money and we can't even get the state to help with that. We are stuck in a catch 22. The state can't offer more help, while we wait on her court date, she can't go to the doctor because she has no insurance or money, her MS as a result is going down hill and VERY fast, the church said they can't pay her utilities anymore, her rent is due in 8 days, and we have to drive 6 hours and pay $75 to see her old doctor (not to mention the ever rising gas prices raising the cost of the trip). UGH! You see why I am so stressed now. I seem to be the only one in the family even half worried about this issue. Well, maybe its because I am responsible, and maybe its because it is the care giver in me, I don't know, but it is hard on me. If you have read this far, then thank you. I have had a hard morning and we haven't even done school yet because I have been messing around with this whole thing. I also did it yesterday afternoon. Anyhow, if you are a praying person, pray that what God wants to happen, will happen. We need all the prayers we can get. We could also use monetary donations, until we see results from SSI (LOL- Just kidding, but we really could use them.) Anyhow, pray that something happens. We are stuck right now and I am not sure what to do. Thanks all and thanks for sticking by me. I can't believe I even have readers, but I do. God works in mysterious ways. Lots of love....

Where does she come up with these things?

Alright, as you can gather by the title, I am just baffled. Here are two conversations from our morning:

Conversation 1:

Mom: My goodness Anna, I think my brain hurts.
Anna (without missing a beat): Thats because you have been talking too much.

Conversation 2:

Anna: Bad Scout,(her toy dog) You need to listen to me when I talk to you.
Mom: Be nice Anna. That doesn't sound nice.
Anna: But Scout didn't listen mom and I have to punish him or he won't learn. The Bible says not to let our children grow up without correcting them. (This was one of our Bible verses for school, apparently it stuck.)

>>>>>>>

Ok, so what am I supposed to do. Everything I do or say comes back to haunt me in the form of my daughter repeating it in some form or fashion. (Except the talking too much comment, not sure where she got that.) Anyhow, we have just hit 9:15am and that is how our day is going already. School ought to be REALLY fun today. LOL! Have a good day all.

What did we start?! LOL!!

Well, we of course had to go spend the "Tooth Fairy" money. She was dying to go look through the toys. she ended up with a horse. Yes, ANOTHER horse. What can I say she absolutely loves horses and found one that neighed and whinnied. She fell in love with it. We asked her what she thought the Tooth Fairy would bring for her next tooth and she says $11. UGH!! We politely and kindly explained to her that the first tooth was EXTRA special and that we didn't think the Tooth Fairy could bring that much money every time. I am thinking like a dollar or two after this. Think we can get away with it? LOL! Well, thats just the way it will be. She will be fine with it. She apparently doesn't know how much money that was, just that she could buy this horse. LOL! Anyhow, now we are working on the tooth right beside it, so we can start moving the two that came in behind up. Yes, she lost a tooth, but there is no toothless grin, her big teeth had already come in behind the others on the bottom. UGH! I hope the top doesn't do the same.

We leave in four days for Dallas. I can't wait! We are ready for this trip. I am taking Anna ice skating for the first time. Her and I will have a great time and a lot of fun falling too. She is most worried about falling and I told her that we would just get back up and do it again. I think those will be GREAT pictures and it will be a ton of fun to blog about. Other than that, we have Mom's doctors appointment on the Tuesday and then we are open to whatever my sister wants to do. We may need to get in some good shopping time. I can't wait to see the baby and get out of town for a bit.

Alright, we had a late start at school yesterday and we are shooting for the same today. I have to hit a few places, so we had better go. Take care all.

Tooth Fairy Money

Well, this being her first tooth to fall out and all we figured it should be good amount, but we could never really decide on an amount. We gave her, I mean the Tooth Fairy gave her $10. Hope she doesn't expect that from all the other teeth. Only reason I did that is her cousins get a bunch of stuff from the tooth fairy (well, the only cousin that she knows about got a ton from her mother, a video game and money and other items) and I probably faired cheaper than their parents. LOL. She will only get a dollar or two from here on out, but I figured first tooth and all, it would be okay. First tooth is extra special right?! LOL! Anyhow, she came in this morning and I asked her about her tooth and if it was gone and she said yeah. I said what did the Tooth Fairy leave you? She says, "just a dollar." LOL!! Can you tell she doesn't know the value of the bills yet? Anyhow, I said let me see it and she brought it to me and I played dumb and said, Anna, this isn't just a dollar, and proceeded to make her read the amount on the bill. She said ten and then asked what Preisdent that was on the money. She really has a fascination with the different Presidents. Anyhow, I told her she had enough to buy a movie from Wal-Mart and she was excited. Now, I wonder what movie I will be subjected to. LOL! She wants to go today by the way. Sorry honey, but she is dying to spend her money already. LOL! Anyhow, we better get started for the day. I am not sure how much Anna is going to want to do, but we will do something. Have a good day all.

Lost Tooth

Well, Anna lost her first tooth FINALLY!! She has been wiggling it for quite some time now, but it just would never fall out. The last few days it has been extremely loose and bleeds any time she eats or plays with it. Today at breakfast was the last straw. She took a bite of pancake and it bled again. It was hanging on by the last little thread. I finally made her rinse her mouth and told my husband to yank it out. 30 seconds later, it was out and she was crying that she had blood in her mouth. LOL! It was less than two minutes, with the rinsing of water and dabbing, and the bleeding stopped. Then, she was okay with her tooth being out, but terrified that since her Daddy had pulled it out, she was not getting anything from the Tooth Fairy. After reassuring her that she would in deed get some money from the Tooth Fairy, because it was HER tooth, we filled out her book (We have a Dear Tooth Fairy Book- You fill out info on all teeth that come out, like when and how and which one) and finished breakfast. So, what is the going rate for the Tooth Fairy now? Please let me know. I am clueless.

Happy Valentine's Day???

Well, it has been a few days. Valentines day, came and went. We got Anna a little toy horse, with one of those purse carry bags, and two books. That lasted her all of the one day and I haven't seen the horse since. Probably won't for a while too. We got Jeremy a bag of his favorite candy, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and a container of Gummy Worms. I got......NOTHING! Yes, you read that right, nothing. Not a single candy, or a single flower. Nothing! What did I do wrong? I should have at least gotten a card or something. Oh well, thats life and it really doesn't surprise me anymore.

Anna and I did not do school yesterday. I still have got dishes all over the counters that need to be washed from moving. Add onto that the dishes from everyday use and you got one big mess all over the counters. Anyhow, so I loaded the dishwasher and cleaned a counter full of dishes and left them to dry. Now I actually need to run the dishwasher and put away the dishes.

We also went to a place called Fun of a Kind. It is an indoor place for the kids to play and with temperatures in the 20s and drizzly weather, yesterday was the perfect time for this place. I had jello legs yesterday from jumping on the trampoline with Anna for an hour and a half. She had a great time though and played for almsot 2 full hours. I, on the other hand have had my workout for the next week. That wore me out.

Today, well, it is drizzling and cold, yet again. We are expecting snow. (Wonder if we will ever see it.) I work and Jeremy needs to take his car in for new tires. I am tired. Will I ever get some rest? UGH! Better go for now. Have a good Saturday. Hope yours is better than mine.

Night and Day

Well, nothing new to report here. We did start back to school on Monday and we have had one good day and one not so good day. LOL. Wonder what today will bring. One day she cooperated and tried her best on everything and the next day was "I don't want to do it," act all stubborn, arms folded day. LOL! It was complete night and day opposites. Hope today is good. We have a few more errands to get done.

Todays plans are to do school, take my mom for some milk, buy Anna a swim suit (while I can still get her one that covers everything - yes they are just coming out, but for some reason we missed it last year and had a hard time getting one after that), grocery shopping (time to stock the deep freeze and pantry), and Anna's cheerleading class.

As for the cheerleading class, Anna is so excited about this class, even though she is the youngest one in there and she can't do half of what the other kids can do. It will interesting to see how she progresses in this class and whether or not sh even learns anything. Right now it is a small class with only 4 kids, so she gets a lot of individual attention, but this can't last forever. Anyhow, I guess the important thing is SHE likes it. We will definately take another class from this center again.

Anyhow, time to get ready for the day and all that jazz. We have a few things to do. Have a great day everyone and take care.

OOPS! I Forgot....

I forgot to come back on here! LOL! I cleaned the remaining items on Thursday and finished with the old place. Need to buy drip pans for the stove and put them in, then have them walk-through and turn in the keys, but we are done cleaning. YEAH!!! I am glad. That was a lot of hard work and it was nasty. My hands really took a beating this time. Anyhow, we will be comepletely done with it this week. YEAH!!

As for the new place, I hung some of the pictures up yesterday and it is slowly coming along. I can't seem to get through the dishes and laundry ever, but I think that is a normal household thing. LOL! We will be starting back to school today too, after 2 and a 1/2 weeks off, from being sick, moving, setting up, and actually unpacking everything. Hope Anna liked the break, becasue that is the end of it.

We go in just under two weeks to visit my sister and the new baby. I can't wait. I am very excited and so is Anna. We will get to stay for about 3 and a 1/2 days. Anyhow, we are very excited and can't wait to go see the baby and my sister. I haven't seen her since August, when she was still almost 5 months pregnant. It will be good to see her and she will be reasy to get out with the baby around that time. Very good.

Alright, I better go for now. Time to get ready for the day and throw together some lesson plans. Take care all and have a good day. God bless.

P-R-O-C-R-A-S-T-I-N-A-T-E

LOL!! Can you guess from the title what I am doing? Yes, I am procrastinating. I do not, I mean, I do NOT want to clean the kitchen at the old place. I absolutely hate to clean stoves and move a fridge to clean under it. It is gross, stinky and plain old NASTY!! I have managed to clean the two bedrooms, the bathroom, the two sink areas, the living room, dining room, and entry way (which will probably have to be cleaned again as the nice red West Texas dust keeps coming in under the un-sealed door frame.) All I have left is the windows, the kitchen, and to carpet clean the dining area. Thats it. Do you think I can get enough energy to get over there and clean it. NO! I have on the other hand got the new place almost completely unpacked. I have got the dishes basically set to which cabinets we will put them in and I got almost all the laundry done. It is looking good. Maybe soon I can get it finished too and put some good pictures on here. LOL!! Anyhow, thats it. We haven't even started back to school yet from me being sick and then the move. There has been too many other things to do. Maybe next week?!

On the upside, Anna starts her new class today. She has decided to take cheerleading. What possessed me to let her take that is beyond me. I am sure she will have a great time. She loves to "excercise" as she calls it. So last semester it ballet and gymnastics, this semester it is cheerleading. Here goes nothing. Sorry, no cute otufit required for cheerleading as far as I know, so there won't be any show-off type pictures before class. (Although she wants a cheerleading outfit, it isn't required. LOL!!)

Oh and Anna cashed in her change today. She put some in her savings and we went to dreaded Wal-Mart and she bought herself a new movie...Barbie as the Island Princess. She was super excited about this movie and was very proud of herself for saving up (Er, I mean suckering change from everyone we saw) the money to go buy it. It took her about 2 months. LOL! So, I guess we better go. I am resigned to watching that movie this afternoon before her class. Wish me luck.

Back to the Same Old Stuff

Back to the same old grind. We are up and at it like normal today. Plans are to go clean the old apartment a bit. We are trying to get out of there completely by the end of the week, but we will have to see. I will at least go move the trash out and get the bathroom cleaned and possibly the bedrooms today. Tomorrow we will go back and clean the living room and dining room and we will save the kitchen for Wednesday (it is in the worst shape and will take the longest to clean.) Anyhow, as for this list from yesterday, here's how I did:

1. Go to church - check. It was a great service too.
2. Take my mom shopping - check
3. Move the washer & dryer and hook them up - check. we moved the deep freezer too.
4. Wash dishes and put them away - started, but definately not complete.
5. Wash laundry (can only be done if we complete # 3) - started, but again not complete.
6. Unpack homeschool stuff and get organized - unpacked and organized.
7. Write lesson plans for school - never even got close to doing this.
8. Put the thought of EVER moving again out of my head - still don't ever want to move again.

As you can see, it wasn't too bad. I actually got a lot accomplished yesterday. Now if we can just get all the way out of the old place, I can turn the electricity off. That would make me so happy right now. Anyway, time to get ready for the day. Take care all.

Moving Stinks!

LOL! As you can gather from the title, I am so sick of moving!! We were supposed to move on Wednesday, but we had several technical issues. The water company didn't turn the water on until 4:30pm Wednesday night was the first issue. Trying to move into a house that needed cleaning with NO running water just doesn't work. The second issue was the gas company. We had gas scheduled to come on early Wednesday. He came and I was excited that he actually called first, like I had asked. Well, it was a short lived excitement. There was a leak in the gas line somewhere between our house and the main line, which meant no gas could be turned on until it was fixed. Seeing as it was going into the 20s that night, with windchills in the single digits, there was no way we could move our furniture in and get settled, so we quit for the night and went home (to the old apartment.) My mom kept Anna which distracted her from the thought that we couldn't spend the night in the house that she found. (She was disappointed about this fact.) Thanks mom! We needed that time and so did she.

On Thursday, we woke up to a nice layer of ice on the roadways and freezing cold temperatures. How on earth are you supposed to move across town with a sheet of ice on the ground? Well, we chose to not drive my brother-in-laws truck until it thawed out and instead loaded up my car with a VERY full load and prayed that the streets thawed by 10am. It was a good thought and we got that load moved and by 10am, give or take, the roads were completely cleared, although it was still cold. We actually had gas running by about 11:45am, after the needed repairs. Our pastor and his wife then rented us a U-Haul truck so we could move the big stuff in one trip. I am eternally grateful to them for the thought and for their help. We would not have made this move without them. We never did use my brother-in-laws truck. He just got to enjoy a day being dropped off at the door and picked up at the door. Anyhow, Thursday we got the majority of the big stuff in and we were able to spend our first night at the new place. (Although it was a LARGE disaster and I am sure it was a violation of a bunch of safety codes as we had no clear path to the door or any window for that matter.)

Friday, we moved over the aquarium and the last of the big stuff from the apartment. We somehow managed to forget to bring the silverware from the drawer in the kitchen. How on earth do you forget something so vital? I mean seriously. We even managed to unload the dishwasher of dirty dishes and bring them over and we still hadn't brought the silverware. UGH! (I got them Saturday, but they are still in the trunk of my car.) I did unpack about 30 or so boxes in the morning before I went to the old place. Did I mention that my husband threw a bucket of water on me outside in the process of cleaning out the aquarium? Did I also mention that it is VERY, very cold outside when you are wet and it is like 38 degress outside?! Lesson learned. Next time I will throw the water on the aquarium while he holds it. LOL! I do forgive you though honey.

Anyhow, did I mention yet that we still have a big mess?! OH! And did I mention that trying to move while you are still working every day and trying to keep everybody happy is hard work?! I am so exhausted and we STILL have a large disasterous mess. AND I DO NOT HAVE MY WASHER AND DRYER YET!!!! (insert large pout here) This was half the reason for the move and we still have not got it unpacked from storage and moved over here! I don't know how we managed that, it was supposed to be the FIRST thing we moved here. In any case, maybe I will get it moved today? Do you think?! Oh, I hope so. I don't want to take my laundry somewhere else. We have the connections and we have the equipment, but we have to get it here!

Ok, gripe, pout and whine, is over. As you can tell, I still have a lot to do. I am hoping to do school with Anna tomorrow as we took off all last week to finish packing and move. Do you think I can get all our school stuff unpacked today? Well, that is my plan. Here is the check list for today:

1. Go to church
2. Take my mom shopping
3. Move the washer & dryer and hook them up
4. Wash dishes and put them away
5. Wash laundry (can only be done if we complete # 3)
6. Unpack homeschool stuff and get organized
7. Write lesson plans for school
8. Put the thought of EVER moving again out of my head

Don't you love that last one?! LOL! Ok, ok. That is enough for today. I will try to dig out some new pictures for this week. Take care all.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to my sister and her husband! They just had a baby girl named Graciela on Tuesday the 29th. She weighed in at 7 lbs 4 oz and was 19 and 3/4 inches long. She is a little cutie and I can't wait to go up and see the baby and the very proud mom and dad! Welcome to the world Graciela!!

Isn't she just adorable?! I can not wait!! (Neither can Anna. On Tuesday, she said lets go. A six hour drive was nothing to my princess to get to see her new cousin.)