Bases Loaded

"Straight to the moon Alice!"

Or Billy, or Judy, or Jimmy, or Jane.  Whatever your name may be you can have it sent to the moon.  Hurry though!  The deadline is June 27, 2008.

Click Here For the "Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter" Website

HT:  Debbie, who posted this information to our local home school group.

Scut Farkus Lives Here

If you were to call our house, and Michael were to answer the phone you might notice something a bit different.  Over the past few weeks his voice has gotten very squeaky, and scratchy, and it cracks a lot when he tries talk loud.  He's a bright young kid and a joy to talk to, but lately listening to him is a like hearing fingernails being run across the chalk board, and I'm very much looking forward to the day his voice finishes changing.  Especially since every time he laughs now he sounds like this guy :

It's Been a Good 13 Years

I love Kent dearly, and have very much enjoyed all the years I have spent with him.  He's also been a great father to our 4 boys, and I regret the fact that Catherine will not have the same chance to get to know her father, but unfortunately I have lost all respect for the man, and can no longer be married to someone who feels that "Cloverfield" was a good movie.

The Epitome of Absurdity

I have read a lot of disturbing things in my life, but the article I just came across certainly takes the cake! 

Black conservative talk show host Armstrong Williams has never voted for a Democrat for president. That could change this year with Barack Obama as the Democratic Party's nominee.

"I don't necessarily like his policies; I don't like much that he advocates, but for the first time in my life, history thrusts me to really seriously think about it," Williams said. "I can honestly say I have no idea who I'm going to pull that lever for in November. And to me, that's incredible."

So let me get this straight. You basically oppose everything this guys stands for, but you will vote for him to run our country for at least 4 years, where he will try and impose all the policies you don't care for, just because he's black!!!!!????????  Ummmmm....isn't that a bit racist? 

Williams, the commentator, says his 82-year-old mother, who also hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate, has already made up her mind.

"She is so proud of Senator Barack Obama, and she has made it clear to all of us that she's voting for him in November," Williams relates. "That is historic. Every time I call her, she asks, 'How's Obama doing?' They feel as if they are a part of this. Because she said, given the history of this country, she never thought she'd ever live to see this moment."

Guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!

Writer and actor Joseph C. Phillips got so excited about Obama earlier this year that he started calling himself an "Obamacan" — Obama Republican. Phillips, who appeared on "The Cosby Show" as Denise Huxtable's husband, Navy Lt. Martin Kendall, said he has wavered since, but he is still thinking about voting for Obama.

I believe the phrase "Obama Republican" would classify as an oxymoron, but I could be wrong.  I definitely give him the moron part!

James T. Harris, a Milwaukee radio talk show host and public speaker, said he opposes Obama "with love in my heart."

"We are of the same generation. He's African American and I'm an American of African descent. We both have lovely wives and beautiful children," Harris said. "Other than that, we've got nothing in common. I hope he loses every state."

Ahhh, at last, a voice of sanity amid the insane.  I don't even know Mr. Harris, yet I think I must profess that right now I dearly love this man.

As Paul Harvey would say, "And now here's the rest of the story."  (Warning: side effects from reading the article may include nausea, dizziness, vomiting, and loss of appetite. )

And, as a finale note, I hope I didn't offend anyone by my comments.  I just find it very scary that someone would vote for a person to run our country based solely on the color of his or her skin, especially when you are against what they personally stand for.  I'm sure if Hillary had won the Democratic nomination there would have been an eerily similar article published about conservative women thinking about voting for Hillary because she's a woman.  As Americans, we should all be beyond and above that. 

Check Your Pockets!!!!!!

Kids are expensive!  I'm an expert on this fact because I have 4.  My sister who has 10 can't even remember what money looks like!  There's baseball, archery, target shooting, sports camps and lessons of different sorts.  There's also the food bill (especially when it comes to eating out), school books, clothing, field trips, and on and on and on!   Today there was the $180 service bill for the washing machine repair guy, and apparently I got off cheap!

Over the past little bit our washer (only a year and a half old) has not been draining quite as well as it should.  When the service guy drained it today we found out why.  The culprits (those things that got sucked in between the wall of the washer tub and drain) are as follows:

• 2 quarters
• 1 dime
• 2 keys that you keep above the doors in your house to unlock the bathroom and bedroom doors.
• a Playmobil cowboy hat
• Princess Leah's Lego hair
• A clone trooper Lego mask
• A Lego light saber
• A few other miscellaneous Lego pieces
• A wrapper to some Diego fruit snacks
• A silver ball that belongs to the boys Mega Magz set

The new house rules are as follows:

• You must check your pockets and empty them before heading up to bed for the night, or before you place you pants/shorts in the laundry bin.  I will be checking pockets before I do wash.  If I find something in your pockets you will be charged $1 that will go into a laundry fund.  If this should happen again and the laundry fund does not cover the bill, each of you will be deducted 1/2 your allowances until the remainder of the bill is paid!

A Dinner to Remember

I'm sure it will come as no surprise to anyone when I say life with James is never dull!  Dinner tonight was no exception.

For some reason just out of the blue James proclaimed at the dinner table that he was not fat.  I agreed and also stated that neither he or his brothers were fat.  James realizing that my weight had not yet been commented on quickly declared, "Yeah, but you're fat Mom!" 

After the laughter died down John decided to stick up for his whale of a mother and explained to James that it was only because of the baby in my tummy, the two older boys knowing what was good for them readily agreed. 

James has now spent the rest of the night following me around the house proclaiming, "Mom, you're fat, but only cause there's a baby in your tummy!"

Now, even thought James was "kind" enough to point out my temporary weight problem, I must also thank him for possibly ruining my appetite for the rest of my pregnancy and beyond.  You see tonight I served pan seared salmon, a dish everyone eats but him.  There were also S'mores for dessert, something he loves but could not have until he ate his salmon.  He was sulking over his food when Kent pulled out the crunchy peanut butter from the pantry.  For some reason James thought this would make his fish more palatable and asked for some on the side.  Kent obliged, and James ate every bit of that salmon dipped in peanut butter!   

Definition of Mortified

How a mother feels when she walks out of the bathroom of her neighborhood swimming pool and sees her husband pulling up the swimsuit of their four year old child, who is standing on the side of the pool while his older brothers laugh at him and reprimand him for peeing in the pool.

I'm sure the husband would have reprimanded him as well, but he was too busy laughing.

Fresh Food by the Foot

When I made our plans for science this year, one of the things I wanted to do was botany.  To study botany we were going to plant a garden and various types of plants, including some carnivorous ones, and we were going to start in the spring.  This was before the drought took full effect and we were banned from outdoor watering.  Our county has eased up on restrictions a bit, and we are now allowed 25 minutes of hand watering, on certain days of the week, at ridiculous hours in the morning, so I'm not sure how great our garden will be this year, but we are giving it a whirl anyways.  (I'm sure there's lots of good lessons to be learned about growing a garden in less than stellar conditions, right!?)

One book that has given me hope for success is Mel Bartholomew's "All New Square Foot Gardening".  There was a write up in the paper on it a few weeks ago, and I was able to quickly secure a copy at the library.  Kent, the boys and I all fell in love with it, so it is now sitting in my Amazon.com cart waiting to be purchased in the next day or two, along with a whittling book for Michael and a resource book for me.  (Gotta meet that $25 for free shipping!) 

Kent has made a list of the wood we need to build our first box, along with some smaller square foot boxes to adorn the steps of our deck.  We also have a list a mile long of everything we want to plant, so I guess we'll have to narrow that down a bit.  According to the book, 12 square feet can grow quite a bit of food, but not 40 different kinds of plants, vegetables, herbs, and berries. 

As for the carnivorous plants, I bought a seed packet when I ordered my school books last year, and the library actually has a book on how to grow them, so we'll see how far we get with that. If we do not have success on our own, I've been assured by our local nursery that they carry a variety of carvinorous plants there.  I've promised the boys bug eating plants, and they shall have them! 

I'll keep you posted as we go along.  Hopefully over the next few months all of our thumbs will be turning a lovely shade of green!

The Pioneer Woman Rocks!

OK, so I've been pretty quite again.  Life is just busy right now and I have no right to be on the computer doing frivolous things.   Unfortunately Kent made the mistake of forwarding me a cooking blog.  It was given to him by one of his co-workers who thought I might enjoy it.  She was right!  (Thanks Marti!)

I must admit I have spent way too much time drooling over the blog and zero time actually making any of the recipes, but I absolutely love how she lays out each recipe with all the pictures.  It's just too beautiful a thing to keep to myself so I just thought I would share it with all of you. 

The Pioneer Woman Cooks

If you end up trying any of the recipes, come back and leave a comment letting me know how it was.    I happen to be making her "Best Ever Chocolate Sheet Cake" today, I will post an update after dinner tonight.

**Update:  Made the cake, it was very good!  I have enough nuts running around my house already, so I didn't feel the need to add them to my icing, other than that it was her recipe to a T.   

The Story of a Name

Today is the feast day of Saint Catherine of Siena.  Catherine Siena happens to be the name our daughter will be given when she is born.  This is not the name we had picked out in the past, in case any of the boys would have been a girl.  This name was selected over two years ago by her brother Matthew, who when finding out that his Aunt Bryan, after having 8 boys was finally going to have her first girl, decided that God was going to give us a girl too and we were going to name her after the church we go to; Saint Catherine's of Siena.  Now he had already been praying on a regular basis for a sister, and since he picked out such a beautiful name for her we told him to start asking for St. Catherine's intercession as well, which he did, every single day. 

A few months after he had chosen the name, Matthew made his first communion.  The church he made it at was of course St. Catherine's of Siena, and the date; April 29th, same day as today, her actual feast day.

As each month, then each year went by, we all remained hopeful that God would add to our family, but it did not seem to be happening a quickly as we would have liked and most of us started to think that God had only four children in mind for us.  Matthew was the only one who never, ever doubted.  When we would go through the basement each year, there were certain toys we had to hang onto, even though nobody played with them anymore, because Catherine would certainly want to play with them.  We couldn't get rid of furniture, because where would Catherine sleep.  The only thing that could be given away were the boys clothes, because Catherine wouldn't need those.

When we found out I was pregnant, Matthew was sure it was a girl, but he humored us and decided to play along with the decision to pick out a boy's name as well.  He took out his saints book and decided upon Dominic.  It just so happens Saint Catherine had her first vision while walking past the church of the Dominican Friars in Siena, and later on entered a Dominican convent and took the black and white habit of the Sisters of Penance of St. Dominic. 

So....... it's a very good thing Kent and I happen to love the name just as much as Matthew, and her other brothers do, because after all the prayer Matthew has put in on her behalf, there really is no other name she should have.